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It was a great year for Indian sports with the men's Indian cricket team breaking many records in their glorious seasons, Indian shuttlers winning medals at World Championships including Srikanth who won four Superseries titles in a year. In football, the national team achieved a ranking of 96 and qualified for the AFC Asian Cup as well.
But, it was a good year professionally as well as personally for some sports-persons who got married in 2017. Let's have a look at some of them.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma
The skipper of the Indian national team and the Bollywood actress got hitched in December 2017. Their marriage sent their fans into a frenzy on social media as everyone was sharing the pictures of their wedding and congratulating them on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Fans of both the public figures dubbed their union with a nickname for the couple 'Virushka'. Even before their marriage, their fans and even the paparazzi kept covering their love story.
It was a great year for the prolific batsman who broke many records this year including the most number of centuries by a captain in Tests, and most number of runs in a three-match Test series and became the first Indian captain to score 1000+ runs in a calendar year.
Sikki Reddy and Sumeeth Reddy
Shuttlers Sikki and Sumeeth Reddy got engaged in February after playing against each other a few days ago in the final of the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold. Sikki, alongside her partner Pranaav got the better of Sumeeth and his doubles' partner Ashwini Ponnappa.
They finally tied the knot in December 2017 in a ceremony away from the eyes of the media, unlike the engagement ceremony.
Love matches are not a new thing in the P Gopichand Academy with the coach himself marrying national champion Laxmi. Arun Vishnu and Arundhati Pantawane, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Pradnya Gadre, Akshay Dewalkar and Mridu Sharma following in the steps of their coach with Sikki and Sumeeth the latest to follow suit.
Sunil Chettri and Sonam Bhattacharya
The skipper of the Indian football team married his long-time girlfriend and daughter of Mohun Bagan legend Subrata Bhattacharya, Sonam Bhattacharya. They got married on December 3 in Gurgaon while the reception was held in Gurgaon on December 24.
It was a great year for Chettri, who led India in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers and helped the team qualify for the tournament. Even in club football, Bengaluru FC reached the AFC Cup semi-final with Chettri scoring a goal each in the quarter-final and the semi-final.
However, the highlight of the year was India achieving 96th rank in FIFA rankings in July.
Sakshi Malik and Satyawart Kadian
The Olympic bronze medalist got engaged to Kadian in October 2016 but only tied the knot on April 2, 2017. The wedding was attended by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Olympic medal winners Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar and others.
Her wedding came into controversy as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sports minister Anil Vij decided to skip it after she accused the state government of failing to fulfil their promises to reward her for her Olympic performance.
Satyawart Kaidan won the 2014 Asian Wrestling Championships and followed it up with a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The highlight of Sakshi's year though, was when she was conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of India.
Ashwini Ponnappa and Karan Medappa
The badminton star got married to the businessman-model in on December 24 in Coorg. Ashwini announced the engagement with her long-time boyfriend in October via an Instagram post.
Professionally, the month November brought double-delight for Ponnappa as she won gold in both the women's doubles and mixed doubles at the National Championships. In Women's doubles, she partnered N. Sikki Reddy while in mixed doubles, the 17-year old Satviksairaj Rankireddy was her partner.
However, Ponnappa will have little time to rest after her marriage, as she has to rush off the New Delhi to take part in the Premier Badminton League, where she is representing the Delhi Dashers. Incidentally, she became the highest-paid Indian doubles shuttler in the PBL Auctions, earlier this year, when the Dashers bought her for Rs 20 lakh.
Yogeshwar Dutt and Sheetal Sharma
However, we believe that the best marriage in Indian sports this year was between star grappler Yogeshwar Dutt and Sheetal Sharma, the daughter of Haryana Congressman Jaibhagwan Sharma. In a show of great gesture, Yogeshwar refused to take any dowry for the marriage, and only accepted a token amount of Re 1 from the bride's family.
With such a gesture, Yogeshwar Dutt set himself and his family apart, as an example for the fans to follow. Dowry has been a menace for marriages in India, and Yogeshwar's gesture stands out as an example of what the right thing to do is.
