Sportsmen and actresses: A love story

With Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's passing came the end of one of the most enduring celebrity marriages of our time.
Nicknamed Tiger, the dashing cricket skipper married filmstar Sharmila Tagore on December 27, 1969. They would have been married for 42 years three months from now.
Their love story was the stuff of legends. He pursued her for four years before she said yes. They had three children together, and Sharmila maintained that for the the world began and ended with each other.

Coming up: Crossover celebrity unions

Ladies man Shane Warne has quite a Casanova reputation and he has lost none of his charm. His last affair cost him his marriage and Australian captaincy but the cricketer just can't seem to get enough of women. Reportedly, he has been romancing Hollywood hottie Liz Hurley after his spin bowling caused quite a dent in her three year old marriage to Arun Nayar.

Lara Dutta and Mahesh Bhupati confirmed an exchange of rings on Twitter, after the Tennis ace proposed the lovely lady on a trip to the City of Blinding lights, New York. (Photo: Viral Bhayani)

The relationship has witnessed many ups and downs. Mahesh Bhupathi's ex-wife Shwetha Jaishankar had blamed Lara for the divorce between her and Mahesh, but Lara Dutta had strongly denied such allegations.

Shoaib Malik was also reportedly involved in a long-distance relationship with former Miss India Sayali Bhagat. But the relationship, if there was one, obviously didn't go very far.

Bollywood actress Reena Roy married former Pakistani Test batsman Mohsin Khan, now the national chief selector, in the 1980s. The two later divorced.

Former Pakistani captain Imran Khan was linked with Bollywood bombshell Zeenat Aman, though nothing was officially confirmed.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's alleged affair with actress Lakshmi Rai had kept the gossipmongers busy for quite a while.

According to reports, cricketer Ravi Shastri was engaged to actress Amrita Singh but the situation worsened drastically and the two parted ways forever.

One of the greatest all-rounders in cricket Garfield "Gary" Sobers was briefly engaged to actress Anju Mahendru. The actress was then in a relationship with Rajesh Khanna.

Actress Amrita Arora dated cricketer Usman Afzal for almost four years but decided to part ways after undergoing a period full of strain.

The Harbhajan Singh-Geeta Basra linkup had everyone talking about them taking it to the next level. But, alas!

When Yuvraj Singh was spotted along with model Aanchal Kumar at an IPL party, rumours of their affair began to fly around. (Photo: IPL2010/Getty Images)

Earlier Yuvi was linked with Bollywood starlet Kim Sharma. Their much publicised affair failed to go anywhere.

Sourav Ganguly's reported affair with actress Naghma hogged the headlines for a while, then the reports just faded away.

Former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin married model-turned actress Sangeeta Bijlani. Sangeeta was earlier dating Salman Khan.

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes had a long relationship with actress Mahima Choudhary, but then things didn't end well.

Following his breakup with Mahima, Leander married Rhea Pillai, who was earlier married to Sanjay Dutt.

Cricketing legend Vivian Richards had a brief affair with actress Neena Gupta, with whom he has a daughter Masaba.

According to reports Pakistani cricketer Mohammed Asif secretly married actress and model Veena Malik in a secret ceremony. Though Veena said that she had refused Asif's proposal for marriage. The two were then involved in a much-hyped money dispute. Asif later married his girlfriend Sana Hilal.

An already married Manoj Prabhakar fell in love with actress Farheen (who made her Bollywood debut with Jaan Tere Naam in 1992). Manoj later divorced his first wife Sandhya.

Earlier, Dhoni was also linked with Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone. But these rumours were denied by both Deepika and Dhoni.

After Kim, Yuvi was linked with Deepika Padukone. The two were spotted at various ocassions and reports were that Deepika attended Yuvraj's birthday party after the India-Pakistan Test match in Bangalore.

Isha Sharvani, who was seen in films like U Me Aur Hum and Luck By Chance, was reportedly dating 30-year old left arm pace bowler Zaheer Khan for two years before calling it quits in 2007. Rumours of the two getting back together was doing the rounds. However, nothing came out of it as Isha is now reportedly seeing a London-based filmmaker.

There were also reports of Sameera Reddy going around with India's emerging pace sensation Ishant Sharma. According to reports, the two met during some of the IPL matches last year and hit it off very well.

There were rumours that Priyanka Chopra was in a relationship with cricketer Sreesanth but the actress came out clearly on it and said there was nothing at all and that the relationship was purely professional.