Shikhar Dhawan, the Indian cricket team’s opener,
gained a lot of support from his supporters after being left off the team due
to his subpar performance in international matches. Dhawan was supposed to be
the captain of the Indian team at the Asian Games in 2022, but the selection
committee overlooked him again. In the Indian Premier League 2023, Shikhar was
the captain of the Punjab Kings and made 373 runs at an average of 41.44 from
11 games.
A family court in New Delhi while issuing an order
against Shikhar Dhawan’s wife Ayesha Mukherjee granted divorce to the Indian
opener and accepted the allegations made by him against his wife in his
petition. The official judgement of the court said:
“Since petitioner is a reputed International
Cricketer and has been pride of the nation, subject to petitioner approaching
the Union Government of India, it is requested to take up the issue of
visitation/custody of the minor son with its counterpart in Australia to help
him have regular visitation or chatting with his own son or his permanent
custody. He (Dhawan) for no fault of his own had been through immense agony and
anguish of living separately from his own son for years. Even though the wife
denied the allegation, submitting that though she genuinely wanted to live in
India with him, however due to her commitment towards her daughters from her
previous marriage requiring her to stay in Australia, she could not come to
live in India and that he was well aware of her commitment, yet she did not
choose to contest the claim. Hence, it stands proved that the wife backtracked
from her assurance of setting up matrimonial home in India after marriage and
thus made him suffer a long-distance marriage and suffer immense agony and anguish
of living separately from his own son for years.”
While the court granted divorce to Shikhar Dhawan, it
has yet to make a judgment on the custody of his son. However, Dhawan was
allowed to meet his son for an appropriate duration, either in India or
Australia. He was also allowed to talk to him on chats and video calls.