Hasan Ali's Dubai wedding: Photos from the Pakistani cricketer's UAE nuptials
19 August, 2019
Pakistani cricket star Hasan Ali is getting married in Dubai tomorrow, and the celebrations appear to well and truly be underway.
High profile Pakistani wedding photographers Da Artist Photo shared these photos of the groom, and what looks like the couple standing on the Palm Jumeirah boardwalk.
"We're here [in Dubai] to cover Hasan Ali's Nikkah," the photographers wrote on Instagram.
The wedding photographers added the hashtag #SamiyaArzoo, suggesting that that is in fact the bride's full name, as rumoured.
The medium-pacer's friends and family, including a contingent from the Pakistan national cricket team, have been voicing their excitement about the upcoming nuptials on social media.
Teammate Shadab Khan was pictured on what looks like an Emirates Business Class flight to Dubai in a photo his friend posted on Twitter. The caption read: "Off to Dubai for yar da viah (yar da viah means "my friend's wedding" in Punjabi).
Rumours swirled about the cricketer's marriage earlier this year, and then he confirmed that August 20 would be the date, and the UAE would be the location, in an interview with Geo News.
He said he had met her a year ago during a dinner. “I spoke to my brother and sister-in-law after I met her. I told my brother that I wanted to marry her and the family had no issue.”
He added that pictures circulating of her on social media were fake, and people would not get to see her until after the wedding.
It's not clear how many Pakistani cricketers were making the trip for the wedding, though Ali has previously said that most of his teammates were busy and unable to attend the nikkah ceremony on Tuesday, when the two will officially become married. He did say that they would have the walima two or three months later in Pakistan – when more of his teammates were free. The walima is the marriage banquet, or celebration.
Ali is believed to have been granted six days leave from the team for his wedding.
Although there's little known of Ali's soon-to-be wife, he has shared one interesting nugget of information: the fact that she does not like the sport he's devoted his life to.
“She knows nothing about cricket and does not like it," he told Geo News earlier this month. "Her first favourite cricketer is Hasan Ali.”