19 August,2015 06:00 PM IST | | A Correspondent
Dinesh Karthik and Dipika Pallikal tied the knot in a traditional Christian ceremony in Chennai on Tuesday. The duo will get married again in a Telugu-Naidu style wedding on August 20
Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik and Indian squash ace Dipika Pallikal tied the knot in a traditional Christian ceremony in Chennai on Tuesday. The duo will get married again in a Telugu-Naidu style wedding on August 20.
The sports couple are having two weddings since the 23-year-old sqaush player belongs to the Christian community and Karthik is from Hindu family.
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Dinesh Karthik puts the wedding ring on Dipika Pallikal's finger. Pic courtesy BCCI Twitter account
Pallikal, who's the first Indian squash player to break into the top 10 of the World Squash rankings, has been engaged to the 30-year-old wicketkeeper batsman since November 15, 2013.
The wedding was a private affair with only close friends and family of the bride and groom there to witness the special occasion.
Dipika met Dinesh after his divorce from his first wife and childhood friend Nikita, who is now wife of Indian opener Murali Vijay. They got to know each other at a gym in Chennai where they train under the same trainer, Basu Shankar.
A candid shot of the married couple. Pic courtesy BCCI Twitter account
The pictures shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on social media shows Dipika looking gorgeous in a designer wedding gown. Karthik appears as the happy handsome groom.
BCCI tweeted, "The beginning of a new innings for @DineshKarthik and @DipikaPallikal and we wish them a happy married life".
In a interview with The Hindu in 2014, the couple had said that they go about their respective jobs - sports, in this case - like any other regular couple, and even try and make time to meet up with each other in between tournaments, like regular couples would do.
The couple keenly follow each other's sporting career too. "It's my duty to follow Dinesh's matches. Whenever he plays, I keep a tab on the scores and how he's playing and all of that. And he does the same too. Once the match is over, we speak to each other to discuss how it went," Dipika had told mid-day in December 2014. "I follow her matches⦠I think I'm her emotional anchor, to an extent. When it comes to sport, I help her in whatever little way I can," Dinesh had said at that time.