Guruvayoor (Kerala) Dec 12 (IANS)

Controversial former India pace bowler S. Sreesanth early Thursday morning tied the knot with his long standing girlfriend Bhuvaneshwari Kumari at the famed Guruvayoor Sree Krishna temple in this Kerala town.

The marriage ceremony lasted for 15 minutes and was attended by close family members of the couple.

After the wedding, the newly-married couple headed to Sreesanth's home in Kochi where the reception will be held in the evening.

Dressed in traditional Kerala costumes, the bride and the groom exchanged rings and garlands.

The couple has been going steady for the past few years and Bhuvaneshwari stood by him in times of crisis when he was jailed following a spot-fixing scandal during the last edition of the Indian Premier League.

The bride comes from a Jaipur royal family and is a jewellery designer by profession.

After his arrest May 16 and subsequent imprisonment till June 11, 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 apex cricket body.

Sreesanth has been charged under the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the case has now been posted for Dec 18.

Sreesanth is the second Keralite to represent the country and has played in 27 Tests (87 wickets), 53 ODIs (75 wickets) and 10 T20s (seven wickets).