“Chris Cairns tried to drag me into fixing,” Brendon McCullum opens up

Brendon McCullum opens up how Chris Cairns tried to drag him into fixing and had masked his income from spot-fixing by using it to buy property.

“Chris Cairns tried to drag me into fixing,” Brendon McCullum opens up

Wicket-keeper batsman McCullum was playing alongside Australia’s Ricky Ponting for KKR in the IPL at the time of Cairns’ alleged approach. He told Southwark Crown Court that over a bottle of red wine and a curry in Cairns’ hotel room, Cairns had asked him if he knew “anything about spot-fixing in 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. Wicket-keeper batsman McCullum was playing alongside Australia’s Ricky Ponting for KKR in the IPL at the time of Cairns’ alleged approach.

McCullum said that Cairns had used a piece of paper to illustrate how spot-fixing worked, involving the manipulation of runs scored in a match, but not the result. According to McCullum, Cairns gave a “quite thorough” description of the practice, breaking down different periods of the game and nothing when the match could be influenced. Asked by prosecutor Sasha Wass QC if it was a “legitimate” way to play cricket, McCullum said, “No, it was not an honest game of cricket.” He added, “I was shocked. I sort of thought he may have been joking, but I quickly became aware that he was not joking. He said that everybody is doing it, all the big boys are doing it. Will you take it on?”

McCullum said that then-New Zealand internationals Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram were both mentioned, but Cairns said “they did not have the balls to do it”. He also said that “Asian names” had been discussed and that Cairns had told him that each incidence of spot-fixing could be worth “between $70,000 and $200,000”. McCullum said that Cairns had masked his income from spot-fixing by using it to buy property. The second approach from Cairns came in what McCullum described as a “pretty brief” telephone call, with the third approach coming while the men ate breakfast together in June 2008.