5 Cricketers who had secret weddings

When one considers big-cricket weddings, the big receptions and celebrity-studded guest lists tend to hog the limelight. Some of them, however, have gotten married quietly under the radar.

These cricketers demonstrate how some of cricket's greatest stars shield their milestones from publicity. Whether borrowing false names or exchanging vows in private homes, they've all managed to juggle life in the limelight with moments of privacy. For the players and their spouses, being able to enjoy those first few hours together, free from cameras and headlines, often makes such secret weddings even more special.

Here are five cricketers who went the extra mile to keep their weddings private.

1. Virat Kohli

By late 2017, Virat Kohli was among the most recognisable faces in global cricket, and his wedding to Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma threatened to make his wedding a media circus. To stage their Tuscan wedding, the couple reserved an 800-year-old Italian villa, invited a mere 42 relatives and close friends, and went so far as to use aliases ("Rahul" for Virat) when interacting with suppliers. 

They transported guests in by private jet, only shared photos after the exchanging of vows, and were able to make paparazzi or even the majority of India uncertain until the simultaneous Twitter reveal the following morning.

2. MS Dhoni

Before social media weddings became commonplace, Dhoni and Sakshi got married in her hometown of Dehradun on July 4, 2010. The wedding was the hush‑hush kind with no prior invites sent out, no live reports, just a bunch of people that matter and one or two close friends. India didn't learn about it until rumour had been doing the rounds at Cricket Park Restaurant in Ranchi—and even then, the couple took days to confirm it to the outside world

3. Ravindra Jadeja

For his all-round excellence, Ravindra Jadeja also kept his wedding day remarkably low-key. On 17 April 2016, he married engineer-turned-politician Rivaba Solanki in Rajkot with a three-day Rajput ritual involving mehndi, sangeet and pheras. Only close relatives and a few intimate friends attended, say reports; not even Jadeja's IPL colleagues could manage to arrive on time for the final ritual in the face of match schedules. Photos emerged the following day, but the ceremony itself was hidden from sight.

4. Jasprit Bumrah

When India's express pacer Jasprit Bumrah wed sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan, it was in a low‑key environment in Goa. The pair opted for a private gurdwara marriage on 15 March 2021, witnessed by only family and a handful of close friends, and had kept their relationship generally in the background until the wedding was announced on social media. Even the Mumbai Indians team came to know about it only after match obligations and bio‑bubble restrictions made it impossible for players to attend.

5. Moeen Ali

England's classy all‑rounder Moeen Ali married quietly to Firoza Hussain on 22 April 2017, just after a tour of Bangladesh where they had first met. For months, no news of the wedding leaked, and Ali admitted it only when one of his English cricket correspondents came close to breaking the story, which turned out to be that the ceremony was arranged by their parents and conducted in the presence of close relatives to steer clear of publicity. 

Firoza, who was trained as a fashion designer, has since kept a low profile, emphasising the privacy-loving nature of the couple.

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