Cairns ties knot

Chris Cairns. Photo / Dean Purcell

Kiwi cricket great Chris Cairns married for the third time at an intimate ceremony in one of Sydney's most-exclusive areas yesterday.

The 39-year-old former all-rounder married Australian Melanie Croser at Vaucluse House, a stately mansion.

Security was tight, with guards ringing the perimeter of the 9ha grounds.

The wedding party included former Black Cap team-mates Dion Nash and Adam Parore, who had earlier rubbished reports he would escort Australian model Lara Bingle to the ceremony.

An insider said the couple married in the three-storey, 16-room house before enjoying champagne on the balcony. Their reception was in the venue's tearooms.

Croser, 29, wore a full-length white gown and her bridesmaids wore blue dresses and carried bunches of pink roses.

The couple met in January 2008.

Cairns declared his love for his new bride in an interview with New Zealand Woman's Weekly last month.

"I was amazed when Mel came into my life. She didn't just take me on, she took on all my baggage, too. That was a big ask for her."

Croser, who won a basketball scholarship to Pennsylvania State University in 2004, works for a sports marketing group in Sydney.

Cairns retired from test cricket in 2004 and one-day cricket two years later.