IPL: Aaron Finch certain to miss Kings XI Punjab's opening encounter due to wedding

Aaron Finch is certain to miss his IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab's opener on April 8 as the game clashes with Aussie batsman's wedding. The scheduling of the cash-rich league has also put Finch's Australian teammate, Glenn Maxwell, in a spot.

Finch will be tying the knot on April 7, the same day when the 11th edition of the IPL kicks off. The IPL schedule was confirmed on Friday.
Kings XI Punjab, who bought Finch for Rs 6.2 crore, play their tournament opener against Delhi Daredevils, who paid Rs 9 crore for the services of Maxwell.

Maxwell too is set to miss his team's first game as he has committed to be the MC (master of ceremonies) at Finch's wedding. "I saw the fixture this morning - there's no chance I'll be missing my wedding," Finch told reporters ahead of Australia’s T20 International against New Zealand.

"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.

Both Finch and Maxwell are hoping that their respective IPL coaches, who happen to be Australians, will understand the situation.

Brad Hodge is in charge of Kings XI Punjab while Ricky Ponting has moved to Delhi Daredevils this season after a stint with Mumbai Indians.   

"Having one of my good mates 'Hodgey' 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," added Finch.    His mate Maxwell said it indeed is a tricky situation. "This is an interesting one and I haven’t told anyone this before, not even Punter - we've got Aaron Finch's wedding on April 7," Maxwell was quoted as saying by SEN radio program Whateley.

"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."