Chris Cairns approached me thrice for spot-fixing: Brendon McCullum

Adding credence of Lou Vincent's accusation of match-fixing, current Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum told a London court that former all-rounder Chris Cairns had approached him three times to throw away matches. McCullum, who previously dubbed Cairns as his 'hero', said that the former star had spoken to him in a hotel in Kolkata in 2008 during the first season of the Indian Premier League. Following two more advances from Cairns, McCullum reported him to the authority in February 2011.

"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? Chris was a hero, I did not feel threatened by his approaches," McCullum told Cairns' perjury trial.

McCullum narrated incidents of Cairns approaching him over a "pretty brief" telephonic conversation and then over a bottle of red wine and a curry in the latter's hotel room. Cairns, McCullum says, had used a piece of paper to meticulously illustrate how spot-fixing worked and that it could fetch anything between $70,000 and $200,000 each. Cairns had also let in his secret of how he hid the added income he earned from such events - by investing them in property back home.

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.

The charges facing Cairns relate to a libel case that the 45-year-old brought against Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, in March 2012. Cairns successfully sued Modi for 1.4 million ($2.14 million) after being accused of match-fixing on Twitter in January 2010, but now faces allegations that he lied during the case.