Wedding bells ring for Aussie batsmen

The annual Australian cricketers' wedding season is underway, with two of the nation’s leading batsmen taking advantage of a brief break in the jam-packed calendar to marry their respective partners over the weekend.

Limited-overs star Aaron Finch, who had scheduled his wedding for this weekend under the impression the Indian Premier League season would start a week later than it has, married Amy Griffiths at a picturesque venue in country Victoria.

Both Finch and close friend Glenn Maxwell, who was emcee of the wedding, will miss their respective IPL side's season-openers because of the wedding. Kings XI Punjab (who purchased Finch for A$1.2million at January's auction) and the Delhi Daredevils (who bought Maxwell for $1.75m) face off on Sunday (8.30pm AEST).

Past and present teammates of Finch's were in attendance at the event, held at Willow and Stone Estate about an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Melbourne.

The likes of George Bailey, Mitch Marsh, James Faulkner, Peter Siddle and New Zealand opener Martin Guptill soaked up what was described as "an amazing day topped up off with an amazing night". 

Guests rang in the evening by lighting party sparklers, as Hastings and Marsh hoisted the newly wedded couple on their shoulders.

In Queensland Test No.3 Khawaja, fresh off returning from Australia's tour of South Africa, married Rachel McLellan in a private ceremony on the Sunshine Coast.

Test opener Matthew Renshaw and Queensland Bulls allrounder Michael Neser were both in attendance while groomsman Ben Cutting also missed the start of the IPL (his Mumbai Indians' lost their first match to Chennai Super Kings on Saturday) to attend the wedding.

Both Mr and the new Mrs. Khawaja kept photos of the celebration off social media.

Finding a suitable date for a wedding is a tricky task for any in-demand cricketer, with Maxwell recently revealing how Finch was led to believe he'd found a free weekend between the end of the Australian season and the beginning of the IPL.

But Indian organisers brought the start of the lucrative T20 tournament forward, leaving both Finch and Maxwell in a bind.

Speaking in Auckland during Australia's T20 tri-series in February, Finch said: "I saw the fixture this morning - there's no chance I'll be missing my wedding.

"That'd be a bit tough leaving Amy at the altar, wouldn't it?"

"The second game we play is on the 13th, that'll give me plenty of time to get over there and miss only one game luckily.

"Having one of my good mates 'Hodgey' (former Test batsman Brad Hodge) as coach … he knows about it now. I did wait a bit longer to send him the invite before the auction.

"It's just a case of missing one game but hopefully playing with Kings over a three-year period, it's not the end of the world."

Maxwell said he was forced to hold a tricky conversation with new Delhi Daredevils coach Ricky Ponting, a noted admirer of the Victorian.

"They said the IPL was going to start on the April 15th - he thought the dates were set but we found out about three months ago it was going to start on the eighth," Maxwell told SEN radio.