Former New Zealand cricket captain Chris Cairns was cleared by a London court on Monday of claims he had lied in a libel case three years ago when he said he had never been involved in cheating.
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Arguably the most powerful piece of testimony came from Cairns’ former colleague Lou Vincent who stated that he had been induced into providing a false witness statement in the original case.
The list of prosecution witnesses in the former New Zealand cricket player’s perjury trial resembled a roll call of some of the greats of the game – former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, and other highly regarded past players such as Shane Bond and Chris Harris.
Modi had tweeted in 2010 about Cairns’ supposed involvement in match-fixing.
Cairns acknowledged both meetings with McCullum, one in England and one in India, had taken place but said there was nothing sinister about them. “I think it would be pretty hard ever to go back into the game: there’s a lot of damage been done”, he said.
He successfully sued Modi, who was ordered to pay him £90,000 as part of a £1.4m settlement that also included legal fees in Britain’s first ever Twitter libel trial in 2012.
“This will make people think twice before they come forward with information in the future for not just cricket but sport in general when it comes to fighting match-fixing”, said Mr Mills.
Asked by Cairns’ QC, Orlando Pownall, why the ICC had done nothing in response to McCullum’s initial statement in 2011, three years after he said no to alleged approaches, the anti-corruption officer John Rhodes replied the Indian Cricket League, where Cairns saw out his playing career, was not under the governing body’s jurisdiction given its unsanctioned status.
Cairns was a wonderful cricketer who illuminated numerous 62 Test matches in which he played as a hard-hitting, rumbustious batsman and troublesome seam bowler.
Cairns was happy and relieved as he left Southwark Crown Court to face waiting media.
“I will consider how this affects my own civil claim against Mr Cairns in due course”.
“Reputationally I’m completely scorched … burnt, completely”.
He says the only good thing is it will open people’s eyes to the fact match fixing is real and can stretch to New Zealand.
“At the start (of the hearing on Monday) I couldn’t hear the foreman, I didn’t actually know what he had said”.
30 May 2014: Cairns returns from London after being interviewed by the Metropolitan Police, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the ICC’s anti-corruption unit.
An emotional Chris Cairns has blasted the way his father Lance was treated by the New Zealand cricket fraternity.
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“I heard him say that he would not be involved in cricket and I think that today is not the right day to have that conversation… but I’m an older man and I never say never”, he said.
