NZC boss denies collusion claim: ‘I would never do that’
AFTER seven days of evidence, the Chris Cairns perjury trial has reached middle-order prosecution witnesses, with the Crown quietly accumulating as many runs as possible before the defence gets a turn at the crease late next week.
After the fireworks of openers banned match-fixer Lou Vincent and New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum last week, in which a half-naked woman, suitcases of money, and all manner of sub-plots featured, the Crown case against Cairns has settled into a phase of accumulation.
Yesterday, bureaucrats David White, the New Zealand Cricket boss, and John Rhodes from the ICC anti-corruption unit occupied the witness box.
Both played it straight, with White saying he had no influence over the ICC investigation into Cairns, Vincent and former fast bowler Daryl Tuffey.
His favourite shot to defence lawyer Orlando Pownall, QC, was to repeat words along the lines of ‘‘it is the ICC that has the jurisdiction in this area, not NZC.’’
Pownall again aimed his attack at how McCullum had avoided being banned for his failure to immediately report Cairns on suspicion of fixing, instead waiting nearly three years to do so.
He accused White and the anticorruption unit of colluding to keep McCullum in the game, while claiming the ‘‘scalp’’ of Cairns. White said: ‘‘I would never do that’’. Pownall got even less out of his pitch when White departed, and Rhodes came in. A former policeman, the Melbournebased investigator was no excitement machine.
If he could give a one-word answer, he did. He managed to answer simply ‘‘no’’ to four questions on end.
Both White and Rhodes spoke of being contacted by a worried and stressed Cairns soon after he was outed as a potential match-fixer by The Daily Mail in late 2013.
White did not respond on legal advice, Rhodes told Cairns it was too soon and he would talk at the appropriate time in the investigation.
Of the other witnesses, former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting gave a brief cameo and was gone, players’ agent Leanne McGoldrick confirmed details heard before, while club cricketer Phill Hayes gave further insights into the troubled life of Vincent.
Ponting was with Brendon McCullum in a Kolkata hotel in 2008 when the Kiwi got a phone call from ‘‘Cairnsy’’, he told the trial. McCullum told him the short call related to ‘‘business’’, so he asked no questions about it, Ponting said. They did not discuss the details. At the time, McCullum was his Kolkata Knight Riders team-mate in the Indian Premier League (IPL), while former outstanding allrounder Cairns was captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL).
In evidence last week, McCullum said Cairns sent him a car which took him to his hotel, where he alleged spot-fixing was discussed.
McCullum said he declined and also rebuffed a second approach, in England.
Cairns, 45, is charged with perjury for allegedly lying under oath in a libel trial, saying he’d ‘‘never’’ cheated at cricket.
He has denied the charges. The maximum sentence for perjury is seven years’ jail.
Leanne McGoldrick, agent for several Kiwi players in the ICL, outlined an evening when her then-client McCullum asked her whether she thought Cairns was involved in match-fixing.
‘‘I said I didn’t think he McGoldrick told the court.
‘‘He said he’d had an occasion in England – in a bar or cafe, I can’t remember which – with Chris, and Chris had asked him whether he knew how to spot-fix.’’
Cairns had allegedly told McCullum ‘‘it was very easy to manipulate, and it was easy to do’’, she said.
‘‘I was completely shocked
was,’’
. . .
I couldn’t believe what he was saying.’’
When she asked McCullum if he could have been mistaken, he told her ‘‘no, he hadn’t’’. She told him to report the approach to authorities.
He said he would, but their business relationship ended soon after and she did not check if he had.
Club cricketer Hayes befriended nowbanned Kiwi cricketer Vincent when he played for the Ramsbottom club, between two 2008 stints with the Chandigarh Lions.
Vincent gave him tickets to go to cricket matches, Hayes worked around the cricketer’s house and at times babysat for him and his ex-wife, Elly Riley.
Once, he went on a run to Birmingham to pick up cash Vincent was being paid for match-fixing, although he didn’t know that at the time.
He wound up left ‘‘to my own devices’’ in an Indian restaurant in a poorer part of town, while Vincent was out the back.
At his engagement party on October 10, 2009 Vincent turned up on his own and agitated.
‘‘His mood concerned me enough to leave the party,’’ Hayes said. Vincent told him his marriage was in trouble.
Months later, after Vincent had been kicked out of home, they went drinking together, with Vincent telling a stunned Hayes he had been involved in matchfixing at the ICL.
‘‘He said everyone in the ICL was involved in match-fixing – he said Chris Cairns was the ring leader. Daryl Tuffey is another name he mentioned,’’ Hayes told the jury.
Of the three Kiwis, Cairns was Chandigarh captain, Vincent an opening batsman, and Tuffey a fast bowler.
Vincent talked of the time when he had ‘‘messed up’’ a fix by hitting boundaries, when he was meant to get out, and Cairns threatened him with a bat, Hayes told the court.
‘‘The mood of the evening was him telling me everything that had gone wrong in his life.’’
At the time Vincent – who claimed Cairns introduced him to match-fixing in India – was working as a tiler without any prospect of making money from cricket.
Hayes said it was a big surprise to later learn that Vincent had fixed English county matches. ‘‘I’d invested so much emotional energy in wanting him to do well.’’
Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori is due to appear tonight. The prosecution case is expected to end the following Thursday, with the defence case stretching into November.