Four high-profile separation of cricketers other than Shikhar Dhawan-Ayesha Mukherjee

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan and his wife Ayesha Mukerjee have separated after eight years of marriage, according to an Instagram post made by Dhawan’s ex-wife. They have a son named Zoravar. Ayesha made the announcement via an Instagram post which started with “I THOUGHT DIVORCE WAS A DIRTY WORD UNTIL I BECAME A 2 TIME DIVORCEE.”

The Melbourne-based Ayesha was married to an Australian businessman earlier and has two daughters from previous marriage. She and Delhi Capitals opener Dhawan got engaged in 2009 and married in 2012. Ayesha is an amateur kickboxer.

“Funny how words can have such powerful meanings and associations. I experienced this first hand as a divorcee. The first time I went through a divorce I was soooooooo f**kn scared. I felt like I had failed and I was doing something so wrong at that time,” Ayesha said in the post.

However, Dhawan-Ayesha split is not the first among top Indian cricketers. Over the years, there have been plenty of high-profile of separations in Indian cricket, right from former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin to former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik.

Here’s a list of some separations involving top Indian cricketers…

Mohammad Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani

Way before Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma were a thing, former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Bollywood actress Sangeeta Bijlani were the biggest celebrity couple. Azhar was first married to Naureen with whom he had two sons. But later on, he chose to marry Sangeeta Biljani in 1996, so he got separated from his first wife. Sangeeta Bijlani and Azharuddin got separated in 2010.

Vinod Kambli and Noella Lewis

Former India southpaw Vinod Kambli married his childhood friend Noella Lewis in 1998. But later on, because of some issues, they divorced only to marry a former model and his current wife Andrea Hewitt.

Javagal Srinath and Jyotsna

Former India paceman Javagal Srinath was married to Jyotsna for about nine years. The couple got married in 1999. After their divorce in 2008, Srinath, who is now an ICC match referee, married journalist Madhavi Patravali.

Dinesh Karthik and Nikita Vanjara

This was probably the most talked about divorces among cricketers in the recent times. India wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik was married to his childhood friend Nikita Vanjara. In 2012, Karthik found out that his wife is having an affair with Indian opener Murali Vijay and they divorced. In 2015, he married the famous squash player Dipika Pallikal.