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Srinath, Kumble bowl over maidens

M D Riti

It was a match nobody knew about, although the fixture had been made much before the World Cup.

Both the famous fast bowlers of Karnataka, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, got married this morning in Bangalore. Their impending weddings had been kept a closely guarded secret by both their families, and those of the young ladies as well. If there had been even a rumour about the engagements, the ladies would certainly have been besieged by queries while their beaus were away in England.

Not much information is available even now about the gals whom these two Kannadigas have caught out, beyond their names.

Anil, who is now 29, has married Chethana, who is from Mysore. Chethana apparently used to work in a travel agency, but will probably stay home now. Anil lives with his parents, brother Dinesh, Dinesh's wife and toddler, in Jayanagar.

Srinath, who will turn 30 in August, has married Jyotsna, 27, who studied at Lady Sriram College in Delhi and whose family moved from Delhi to Bangalore four years ago.

All the families remain close-lipped about anything beyond that. Journalists and photographers who camped outside the two wedding venues this morning were politely, but firmly, refused entry by the cricketers. They had to contend themselves with trying to take quick snapshots of the cricket fraternity as they entered.

Some of these visitors, too, were unusually unwilling to be photographed, insisting that it was a violation of their friends' desire for privacy.

Srinath got married in Rajarajeswarinagar, a quiet residential locality on the outer edge of Bangalore, which is apparently close to where Jyotsna and her family live.

Kumble's wedding was at a temple in the heart of the city. Amongst those who attended the weddings were Venkatesh Prasad and his wife Jayanthi, who is PRO of Titan Industries.

Venky, who is notoriously media shy, got married at a temple in Bangalore about three years ago to the much older Jayanthi, whom he apparently met through Kumble, who he used to visit regularly at the Titan office. (Kumble works for Titan.) His family was initially a little worried about this match, as Venky was very young, but the couple and their child Pruthvi are now a very happy unit, seen regularly on the Bangalore social circuit.

Venky, Kumble and Srinath are known to be great buddies, who often meet over a cup of coffee or a masala dosa at any of Bangalore's numerous, small, eateries.

An attractive Sunil Joshi and his fair, pretty, wife could also be seen at the weddings. Joshi got married about a year ago to a pretty Punjabi kudi (Joshi is a Kannadiga from north Karnataka) and hosted an unusual wedding reception at the popular Bangalore discotheque UFO, at which he even cut a huge wedding cake, and his bride was dressed in a white ghagra choli.

Rahul Dravid came dressed in a flowing white kurta. This popular, young, man, who regularly gets female fan telephone calls at his home, came in for some ribbing as the last eligible bachelor from Karnataka left on the eleven.

Dodda Ganesh, another tall, lanky, bachelor bowler, who seems all set to rise on the cricket horizon again, was also in attendance at the weddings of the men he readily acknowledges as his mentors.

These were the last two weddings in the families of both these bowlers.

Kumble's family has been much in the limelight over the past three months, after years of seclusion, with the whole lot of them participating in a public procession and reception accorded to Anil after he scored that perfect 10 some weeks ago.

As for Srinath, he is one of five children, and the last amongst his siblings to get married: he has three sisters and one brother.

Kumble will have a small reception at Le Meridien hotel on Thursday evening, while Srinath has staggered his by a day, for convenience: his will be at the Taj Residency on Friday evening. Both receptions have limited number of invitees, and gatecrashers are not going to be entertained.

Not surprising, then, that those lucky few with wedding invitations are guarding them more carefully than World Cup tickets!