New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum on Thursday accused Chris Cairns of approaching him to become involved in match-fixing on three occasions and telling him Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram would not have “the balls” to do it. “He said he had a business proposition”.
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“Cairns said, ‘Do you want to hear my side of the story?’ And I said, ‘No I’m not interested”.
Cairns, 45, is charged with allegedly lying under oath in a libel trial, by saying he’d “never” cheated at cricket.
Former all-rounder Cairns, one of New Zealand’s greatest ever players, denies one charge of perjury and one charge of perverting the court of justice.
McCullum was playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL at the time.
“Mr Cairns told Mr McCullum everyone was doing spread betting and he didn’t want Mr McCullum to miss out”, Ms Wass told the court.
Mills said he was told that Cairns had asked for McCullum’s help during a meeting at a cafe, but that McCullum had not given him too many details about the incident.
Mr Bond, a former police officer, added: “No, I do not think I got it wrong”.
“I sort of thought he may have been joking but was then was quickly aware he wasn’t joking”.
Chris Cairns told New Zealand players that the authorities could not do anything if match fixing was taking place at the Indian Cricket League, a court was told.
He told the jury that he and Vincent “go back a long way” to a time when they played club cricket together for Takapuna.
“Mr Cairns explained how he would be able to get Mr McCullum between $70,000 and $180,000 per game”.
“I wish I had said no straight away, but I couldn’t comprehend that Chris would put me in a position where he’d risk my future in the game”.
McCullum said he rejected the proposal during a subsequent phone call, and again when Cairns met him for breakfast in England and asked again.
McCullum revealed to the court that he had spoken out and reached out to the authorities after after the New Zealand team were given a talk by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit during the 2011 World Cup.
“I thought I could deal with it without creating an issue. I guess I knew what we were talking about, spread betting or match-fixing”.
McCullum says the approaches were in 2008 – April and then June.
He listed his various business interests; cricket, buying and selling race horses, and exporting wine and meat to India, saying his ambition was to protect “Brand McCullum”.
“To my knowledge I have”, McCullum responded. He brought a libel action against Modi, who lost £1.4m in damages and costs.
McCullum arrived at Southwark Crown Court court smiling.
The 45-year-old, who was named as one of Widen Cricket Almanack’s Cricketers of the Year in 2000, could face a prison sentence of up to seven years if found guilty.
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The disgraced former cricketer’s perjury trial has involved sex, drugs, match fixing, accusations of blackmail and a line-up of cricketing who’s-who.
