Meet Vini Raman, RCB all-rounder Glenn Maxwell's Indian-origin wife

Veteran Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has tied the knot with his long-time girlfriend and fiance Vini Raman in a private ceremony on Friday, ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.

The 33-year-old cricket, who will be part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team in the 15th season of the T20 league, took to Instagram to share a photograph from their wedding where the couple can be seen sharing a kiss after becoming Mr and Mrs Maxwell.

Soon after the picture was posted, several cricketers, including the Bangalore-based IPL franchise, took to Twitter to wish the couple as they entered the next chapter of their relationship.

Also read: IPL 2022: Can't emulate Kohli or Dhoni, says new RCB captain Faf du Plessis

Reports suggest that the couple is also likely to have a traditional Tamil Brahmin wedding on March 27, after a wedding invite shared by actress Kasturi Shankar went viral.

The couple has been together for a while now and got engaged in February 2021. Vini Raman belongs to a Tamil family based in Australia. An Indian-origin Australian, Vini went to Mentone Girls Secondary College in Victoria. Her favourite pastimes include swimming, travelling, and watching matches live from the stadium.

Vini is currently a practicing pharmacist in Melbourne and first came into the limelight when her picture with the cricketer went viral on social media in 2014. Later, her popularity skyrocketed when Glenn Maxwell attended the Australian Cricket Awards in 2019, hand-in-hand with his lady love.

Though not much is known about their relationship history, it is believed that the duo met at a Melbourne Stars event and dated quite a while before finally getting engaged. 

In August 2017, Vini shared a picture on her Instagram account with Glenn Maxwell, which sparked some rumours of the two dating each other. Soon, the Australian cricketer started making regular appearances on her page, making the rumours more concrete.

Talking about proposing Vini, Maxwell told Neroli Meadows on Ordineroli Speaking Podcast that he wanted to propose in a park. He said, "we went for a walk, and everything felt so wrong. I was so confident in my head about what I was going to do and it all went to s*** basically. Will Pucovski drives past, honking his horn and waving and I thought, 'Well that's ruined Plan C'. I was rattled at that stage."

"There were still kids around and people walking their dogs, and as I turned around, I saw Vini start to walk the wrong direction. I feel like I pinpointed on Google Maps exactly where I wanted her to meet me, so I was a bit annoyed and then told her to come back the other way. I sort of pointed her away by saying there might be a cafe over there and she sort of turned away and I got straight down on one knee," the all-rounder said.

"But as I got down, she still had her phone in her hand, and she must have panicked and pushed a button because she started calling me. So, my phone is vibrating in my pocket like mad. And I'm sitting there with a ring in my hand, shaking anyway. And she started crying, and I was like, I'm not taking this phone call. What is going on here?," the RCB cricketer said.

"So she ended up leaving a seven-minute voice mail, and it was the entire engagement chat. "I've still got that on my phone. So that's pretty cool that we've still got that engagement memory," Maxwell concluded.

Maxwell is an integral part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, which will play under new captain Faf du Plessis in the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League this year after Virat Kohli decided to leave the role at the end of last year’s tournament.