Shoaib denies 'marriage', bride wants divorce

NO WAY OUT: Shoaib says he can't divorce Ayesha because they never got married.

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Hyderabad: Pakistan cricket team skipper Shoaib Malik has denied marrying a Hyderabadi girl Ayesha Siddiqui but the girl's father says that it's not true.

The story has all the ingredients of a Bollywood blockbuster with a cross border romance angle.

But now Ayesha wants a divorce and Shoaib says he can't divorce her because they never got married, and the girl's father MA Siddiqui contests Shoaib's claim.

"It was very grand party. The entire team was here including the then coach Mr. Bob Woolmer and as well the Director of the Pakistan Cricket Board and some of my friends. They all are witness," says MA Siddiqui.

Shoaib doesn't deny that he met Ayesha in Dubai and they were in a relationship.

"Yes I had a long relationship with her and we planned to get married. But no nikaah ever took place and in the end our families could not reach an understanding on various things," says a statement by Shoaib.

But Shoaib's statement has infuriated the Siddique household. Ayesha's father says he has enough proof that the two were married in a ceremony over the phone.

Even religious leaders say nikaah over the phone holds good. MA Siddiqui says he has enough proof to take the matter to court.

"When there was no intention of carrying off this marriage, he should have told me very frankly. I did not force him, or my daughter did not force him to marry her. She is passing though hell and fire since that statement because of the denial of the marriage looks very ugly in all the religions of the world," Siddiqui says.

Now Ayesha is seeking a divorce from Shoaib but the Pakistani cricket team skipper has denied the marriage itself.

And with neither the elusive bride nor her celebrity groom willing to talk to the media, or to each other; neither the end, nor the new beginning seem in sight.