Bengaluru, DHNS: State cricketer marries tennis player Sheethal. Cricketer Robin Uthappa exchanged wedding vows with his long-time girlfriend and former national-level tennis champion Sheethal Gautham here at a private ceremony in the presence of close friends and family members.

The wedding was followed by a reception at a five-star hotel attended by former Karnataka internationals and Uthappa’s present and past State team-mates. While former India skipper Anil Kumble, KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel, off-spinning great EAS Prasanna and former paceman Roger Binny were among the first to greet the couple, Rahul Dravid and GR Viswanath were among some of the late entrants. The newly-appointed mentor of the Delhi Daredevils’ team, Dravid, flew in straight to the wedding venue from Delhi along with young Karnataka and Daredevils’ batsman Mayank Agarwal.

Also attending the reception were former India pacer RP Singh, Uthappa’s present and past team-mates R Vinay Kumar Karun Nair, Amit Verma, KB Pawan, B Akhil, Thilak Naidu, Mithun Beerala and Bharat Chipli among others. Former India physio from Australia John Gloster too was among the high-profile attendees.

Uthappa met Sheethal at college where she was his senior. Their sporting backgrounds helped them strike immediate friendship which later blossomed into love. The couple had been dating each other for the past six years before Uthappa went down on his knee and proposed during a holiday late last year.

Uthappa, in an interview to this paper, had credited Shee­thal for helping him rediscover his interest in cricket when he had seemingly lost interest in the game and wanted to shift to some other country.

Phoro credit: DHNS