The Chris Cairns trial
A number of Chris Cairns’ former international teammates will give evidence during his trial on charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
The list of witnesses reads like a who’s who of New Zealand cricket and includes Lou Vincent, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Andre Adams, Daniel Vettori, Stephen Fleming, Brendon McCullum, Chris Harris and Mark Greatbatch.
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting will also give evidence, as will Cairns’ wife, Mel Cairns, and Mal Loye, a county cricket colleague of Vincent.
A number of those witnesses, called both by the Crown and the defence, are from NZ and Australia and will give evidence by audio-visual link, although Vincent and McCullum will appear in person in London.
Also called as a witness is Kerry Schwalger, McCullum’s former mental skills coach.
Evidence in the case will not start until next Monday but the cricketing great’s trial got under way at the Southwark Crown Court in London last night.
Wearing a dark blue suit, Cairns stood in the dock beside his friend Andrew Fitch-Holland, a barrister who is jointly charged with perverting the course of justice, and nodded when asked by the registrar, “Are you Chris Cairns?”
The jury panel of 16 was quickly selected and potential members were excluded if they were professional cricketers, or close to one, worked in cricket administration bodies such as the International Cricket Council, or were police officers. The actual jury of 12 will be confirmed on Thursday morning (NZT).
The charges relate to Cairns’ successful defamation case against powerful cricket administrator Lalit Modi, who alleged the former allrounder was sacked for matchfixing in the Indian Cricket League.
The Crown alleges Cairns lied in that case when he stated he had “never ever” been involved in matchfixing or even contemplated it. The charge of perverting the course of justice relates to Cairns and FitchHolland allegedly approaching Vincent to adduce a false statement in the same libel trial.
Crown prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC, who successfully prosecuted Rolf Harris on historical sex charges in the same court, said the trial could last until November 20 in a “worst-case scenario”.