Either pacer Deepak Chahar is putting his best face forward when he talks to us about the injury that has kept him out of the IPL this year—the very year in which he became the highest paid team member of the Chennai Super Kings, and the second highest paid IPL player of all the teams, picked at the players’ auction in February for ₹14 crore. Or, the 29-year-old cricketer is genuinely mature enough to swallow his disappointment at the state of his professional life at this time and look forward to when he’ll be back on the field after healing and rehab.
If we had to bet on it, we’d say it was the latter, because nothing about Deepak’s unassuming nature so far has caused us to believe that he’s anything but mature. In any case, he has his fiancée Jaya Bhardwaj at his side, helping to nurture him through his injury, and he has his wedding with her to look forward to after the IPL season ends. And then there’s the fact that he’s recovering at home in Agra, with his family—and there’s no better place for him to be than that.
“Injuries are part and parcel of being an athlete and there’s nothing anyone can do about them,” Deepak says. “They [the franchise] did not pay me ₹14 crore as an incentive to perform. The ₹14 crore came to me because I had performed in the last four years. I trained as hard as I could to enter the bio bubble with the rest of the players, but then I injured my back and when the doctors and I discussed what to do, we realised I needed more rest. Once I recover, I will return to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru where I will start training again.”
Knee-deep in love
{{/usCountry}}Knee-deep in love
{{/usCountry}}Deepak’s enforced hiatus from work gives us the opportunity to speak to him and Jaya about the romance between them that came about thanks to Malti, Deepak’s older sister, and the cricketer’s epic proposal to Jaya on 7 October, 2021, after a match against Punjab.
When the match (played in Dubai) ended, the fast bowler, who is known to avoid the limelight as far as possible, bounded up to where Jaya was sitting in the stands, fell to his knees and asked her to marry him, almost literally bowling his maiden over!
As spontaneous as it looked, this was no impulsive proposal. Deepak had been plotting his grand gesture for a long time before he actually did it.
“Our initial plan was to get engaged after the 2021 IPL. However, since we were already staying together in the bio bubble, I wanted to do something special and memorable for her,” says Deepak. “I discussed this with Mahi bhai (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) who advised me to do it immediately after the match with Punjab and not wait for the ‘perfect moment’. I even took permission from the team management, the IPL governing council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India!”
Jaya, apart from being startled out of her mind when Deepak suddenly flung himself at her feet, was one relieved woman when she finally figured out what was going on.
“Our families had met before we left for Dubai and it was decided that we would get engaged in November. But every time I called up Malti or anyone from my family, they seemed uninterested in our plans. This was a bit upsetting for me,” Jaya recalls.
On the day of the proposal, even though Deepak had asked Jaya to wear a black dress he loved on her, Jaya had had no clue what was to come.
“I thought to myself, who wears black for a day match!” she laughs. “But I wore it nevertheless. And when I saw Deepak run up to me in the stands, I first thought he must be injured or something because players don’t usually come to the stands. And then, what happened next was just like a dream. It was an absolutely memorable moment that I will cherish forever.”
Match fixing
Deepak and Jaya would never have met if it hadn’t been for Malti, Deepak’s older sister, who clearly has matchmaking skills she could monetise if she wanted to!
In 2020, just before the lockdown, Malti, an actor, met Delhi-based tech entrepreneur Jaya Bhardwaj at a party in Mumbai.
“I thought Jaya was cute and intelligent and when I learned she was single, I tried to find out more about her,” grins Malti. “We met a couple of times later and the better I got to know her, the more I felt that she and Deepak might make a good couple.”
Malti spoke to Deepak about Jaya, showing him some pictures of the woman she believed would be good for him. While Deepak was interested, he was too shy to reach out to Jaya, so Malti decided to push Jaya to make the first move, instead.
“When I met Jaya again, I asked her to talk to him on the phone, and when they began talking, I visited her in Delhi to answer all the questions about my brother that she had been too shy to ask him herself,” laughs Malti. “Then they started dating and found that their personalities completed each other’s perfectly. Not only do they love each other, but they share the same family values and that’s what makes them a good couple.”
Jaya and Deepak first met face to face in early 2021, while the pandemic was still raging. They had been talking to each other over FaceTime for weeks before that.
“After talking with her on the phone several times, I realised that Jaya is a good mix of beauty and brains and exactly the girl I wanted,” says Deepak. “We connected well on various issues and I told her that I wanted to take the relationship forward.”
So, when Deepak arrived in Delhi, Jaya fetched him from his hotel and took him to Gurugram where they spent the day together. The following day, Jaya collected him from his hotel again, this time to drop him off at the airport, and that’s when the couple decided once and for all that they wanted to be together.
“At the airport, he gave me an Aura ring that could measure sleep and so on, and said, ‘Here’s the ring and I’m engaged to you now!’ It was very cute!” laughs Jaya. “I said, is this something you want to spy on me with, and he said, ‘Yes. I want to hack you!’ After that we began growing closer. We both knew our intentions were right from the start. It’s one of those feelings two people know between each other.”
Bring on the stamp
Jaya who, like Deepak, is 29 years old, is not at all worried about keeping up with her celebrity-status fiancé.
“The fact that Deepak is a cricketer doesn’t worry me at all because I got used to meeting people from Bollywood, sports and so on when I worked at places like Star India, Universal Music, HOOQ and Airtel Extreme,” she explains. “Moreover, he is quite shy and humble and doesn’t throw attitude. He is nice and sweet and very funny.”
Jaya’s genuine liking for Deepak ensured that she agreed to go with him to the 2021 IPL series in Dubai, where the bio bubble would further ensure that they would rarely be apart.
“Falling in love is a process,” muses Jaya. “You fall in love only when you get to know the person closely. Moreover, Deepak had already been in a bio bubble for two months before he had to leave for Dubai and would have been in another bio bubble for the next eight months, so there was no other option for us to spend time together.”
That the two have truly bonded is quite evident from their loving banter at the photo shoot for HT Brunch. “We managed to spend quite some time together during the Dubai IPL in 2021 where we had a studio apartment to ourselves. We got to know each other better and developed a good understanding of each other’s likes and dislikes,” explains Deepak. “Then in February, I suffered from a quadriceps tear during the T20 series against West Indies and had to move to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to recuperate. Jaya joined me there and we have been together ever since. So in a way, we already feel like a married couple. All that we need now is an official stamp!”
The success of any relationship depends on factors like compatibility, understanding, acceptance and mutual respect, agree Deepak and Jaya.
“For me, marriage is a beautiful journey that needs to be enjoyed every day as partners and as best friends. It is a work in progress that needs to be nurtured with care, love, understanding and lot of respect for each other. In fact, for me, respect is even more important than love,” says Jaya.
“I really admire our Indian culture when it comes to marriages,” adds Deepak. “For us, marriages are like a union of families, their customs and cultures, and mutual respect for all of that. I’m very happy to say that our families get along very well and they are fully supportive of all our decisions. I had always been very clear that I would marry a girl of my choice and my parents have always respected that. For me, respect, care and love are the basis of a relationship and I’m happy that our relationship complies with all this.”
Before it became clear that Deepak’s injury would keep him out of the IPL, the couple had planned to marry after the season ended. Though they have time now because Deepak is not working this season, they have decided not to move up their wedding festivities.
“We planned to have our wedding in June after the IPL ends and we are sticking to this plan,” says Deepak. “As this will be a very important day in our lives, we want to celebrate with our families and friends. And the wedding will take place in Agra—the city of love and my home.”
There will be a reception to follow the wedding, but that may be held in another city, says Jaya.
After they marry, the couple intends to settle in Jaipur, where they plan to build their own house. “I have been playing for Rajasthan, have spent most of my childhood there and have stayed more in Jaipur than in Agra,” says Deepak. “I don’t like Delhi at all and Agra doesn’t suit Jaya for her work. But Jaipur is perfect for both of us. People know me there and we will remain close to both our families.”
Partners and persons
A life in Jaipur may also mean somewhat less intrusiveness from the paparazzi and over-eager fans—issues that Jaya likely has to learn to cope with.
“As far as the female fans are concerned, I am not worried at all. It’s for Deepak to handle them,” Jaya says with confidence. “And as far as being tagged as a WAG [the sexist Wives and Girlfriends label given to the spouses and significant others of male sportspeople] is concerned, well, I have my own identity and personality. I have no issue with being referred to as Deepak’s wife as that’s what I am going to be, but my profile doesn’t end there. I have already started my own venture to develop a gaming ecosystem where fans are elevated from being spectators to becoming engaged team players making strategic decisions by leveraging real world sports knowledge. In fact, I am just beginning to develop the first app, which will have cricket at its core.”
Deepak is horrified by the thought of Jaya being reduced by the media to a WAG.
“I would never want my wife to be known by my name,” he says firmly. “She has her own identity as an entrepreneur. It is the media that is responsible for how people refer to the spouses of sportspeople. Most wives and girlfriends of cricketers are independent working women. For example, Anushka Sharma, who is married to Virat Kohli, has her own identity. That’s how I want my wife to be known.”
From HT Brunch, May 21, 2022
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