Cricketer Dinesh Karthik engaged to squash player Dipika Pallikal

Dinesh Karthik and Dipika Pallikal pictured together at their engagement

Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik and squash player Dipika Pallikal have announced news of their engagement.

Dinesh has not featured for India since the Champions Trophy ODI tournament in England earlier this year, which India went on to win. And he was not included in the squad to tour South Africa either. However, things seem to be looking up for the Tamil Nadu cricketer on the personal front, after news broke of his engagement.

Despite rumours in the media about their relationship, the pair had done a good job of keeping it away from the public. They have been reportedly seeing each other for over a year now and finally broke the news with their grand engagement function that was held at the Taj Grand Chola in Chennai.

The pair, both from Chennai, have apparently known each other for a very long time. They used to train under the same fitness coach and that’s how they first came to know each other. Apart from that, they have also done a few corporate and sponsorship events together.

Dipika, in fact, about a month ago in an interview with TOI mentioned that she was in a “very happy place” at the moment and much of it was attributed to much contentment not just on the professional, but also the personal front.

For Dinesh Karthik, it is a ‘second innings’ after the rather tumultuous end to his previous marriage. Sometime last year, before the start of the 2012 IPL, Dinesh was said to have been at his lowest ebb ever after having gone through much turmoil in his personal life. It was believed to be a result of the alleged affair between his ex-wife Nikita and Tamil Nadu and India teammate Murali Vijay.

Also read: Murali Vijay: My philosophy is that I can survive on the street

An article on Cricinfo on June 5, 2013 summed it up aptly:

“Over the last 15 months, Karthik had experienced a metamorphosis especially in his personal life where he suffered a very big setback which took place just before the 2012 IPL. The incident, which has not been made public to respect his privacy, occurred during the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2012. It is understood the incident coincided with Tamil Nadu’s match against Karnataka in Bangalore. On the eve of the match, Karthik was at the lowest point in his life. The circumstances were such that a normal man would have never found it easy to remain mentally stable. Yet, Karthik decided to play the next day and picked Tamil Nadu out of the woods from 45 for 4 to a strong 270, enough for Tamil Nadu to win the match.”

Since then, Dinesh has decided to focus completely on cricket once again and has come back stronger with his performances on the field and now his luck on the personal front seems to have clicked as well as he seems to have found his lady love in 22-year-old squash queen Dipika.