LEGENDARY cricketer Imran Khan has revealed he backed brother-in-law Ben Goldsmith and his bride Kate Rothschild's decision to continue the family tradition of marrying young.

LEGENDARY cricketer Imran Khan has revealed he backed brother-in-law Ben Goldsmith and his bride Kate Rothschild's decision to continue the family tradition of marrying young.

In an exclusive interview with the EADT, the former Pakistani cricket captain, said he had no doubts about the couple or their age - Mr Goldsmith is 23 and his bride two years younger – prior to the ceremony.

Mr Khan's wife, Jemima, was just 21 when the pair were married while Mr Goldsmith's father, Sir James, was the same age when he wed a Bolivian tin heiress.

Speaking after the wedding, Mr Khan gave his blessing to the wedding, which united two of Britain's richest families.

He said: "I was one of the people who thought they should get married. I always thought they were ideally suited to each other.

"They have lovely maturity on their faces that many young couples don't have.

"It was also special as it was my first church service – I had never been to one before. It was wonderful, very touching and I enjoyed my first experience of such a service."

Now a politician, Mr Khan praised Bury St Edmunds and said: "I have visited many places in England but I never knew Bury was such an old, historic town. I visited the Abbey Gardens and it was beautiful."

Mr Khan was joined by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, Sir David Frost and the former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken for Saturday's 5pm service and the reception at the bride's family home Rushbrooke Hall.

Mr Goldsmith is the son of late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith and Kate Rothschild is an heir to one of Europe's most powerful banking families.

Playing down the arrangements, which were believed to have been done by an outside firm rather than the church's usual flower arrangers, Canon John Hayden said the service went well.

He said: "I think St Mary's is a beautiful and wonderful church with or without decoration.

"Everything in the service went according to rehearsals. The couple seemed to be very happy and relaxed."

The Angel Hotel in Bury St Edmunds was fully booked over the weekend with staff looking after Mr Khan and his wife Jemima, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Mr Goldsmith who stayed there on the night before his wedding .

Deputy manager LynnCowen said: "Mr Goldsmith was very charming and relaxed and his whole family seemed to appreciate what we did at the Angel.

"All the guests were charming and it was a pleasure to have them all at the hotel. It is always a nice buzz when we have famous people in the hotel."

Suffolk police provided eight off-duty officers for security during the wedding and control room supervisor Tony Woodward said everything went off without a hitch.

He said: "We had a call from officers in the afternoon saying there was 250 people outside the church and at one stage, we considering closing the road for public safety reasons only. But in the end, it all seemed to go off quietly and smoothly."

The wedding was Suffolk's second celebrity wedding in consecutive years after German supermodel Claudia Schiffer was married to film producer Matthew Vaughan at St George's Church, Shimpling.