Kerala, Dec 11 (IANS): Controversial former India pace bowler S Sreesanth will tie the knot with a girl from the Jaipur royal family, a jewellery designer by profession, at the famed Guruvayoor Sree Krishna temple in Kerala on Thursday morning. Pre-wedding ceremonies were held at a private hotel here Wednesday attended by the close relatives of Sreesanth and the bride Bhuveneshwari Kumari. She along with her family arrived from Rajasthan on 8 December.

The couple has been going steady for the past few years and she stood by him in times of crisis when he was jailed following a spot-fixing scandal which took place during the last edition of the Indian Premier League. After his arrest on 16 May and subsequent imprisonment till 11 June, Sreesanth was banned from all forms of the game by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The couple will go to Sreesanth's ancestral home in Kothamangalam in Ernakulam district after the wedding, followed by a reception in Kochi on Thursday, sources close to the fast bowler told IANS.

After his arrest on 16 May and subsequent imprisonment till 11 June, Sreesanth was banned from all forms of the game by the Board of Control for Cricket in India after a probe by the country's cricket body. Sreesanth has been charged under the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the case has now been posted for 18 December. Sreesanth is only the second Keralite to represent the country and has played in 27 Tests (87 wickets), 53 ODIs (75 wickets) and 10 T20s (seven wickets).