Stephen Fleming confronted 'dirty' Vincent

Former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent has been accused of trying to blackmail Chris Cairns in the ongoing perjury trial of the latter in Southwark Crown Court. Vincent has also mentioned that former New Zealand skipper, Stephen Fleming, cornered him in a bar once about being 'dirty' along with Cairns.

The ongoing trial saw Vincent accusing his 'role-model' Cairns earlier for forcing him into match-fixing in the Indian Cricket League. During the cross-examination on Wednesday, Vincent had been accused of trying to blackmail Cairns with a recorded Skype call, as well as using the reputation of Cairns as a diversion, and also of trying to gain publicity for a new book.

"You're doing what you're doing for the greater good of Lou Vincent," said Cairns' lawyer, Orlando Pownall, in reply to Vincent's claim that he was helping the game of cricket become clean.

Lalit Modi and Vincent

Cairns' lawyer presented a chain of emails from 2010 between Vincent and Lalit Modi that showed the former asking if he had a strong case. Cairns had successfully sued Modi for libel due to a tweet that accused him of match-fixing. Subsequently Cairns has been accused of perverting the course of justice. Vincent was asked why he did not help out Modi in that libel case previously to which Vincent replied saying that he was still 'working for' Cairns at that time since he still owed him money from match-fixing. Vincent had given evidence in favour of Cairns.

The claim was refuted by Cairns' defence and said that Cairns approached Vincent only because there was no corrupt activity between the two and they wanted the truth to be heard.

While Vincent refused to give evidence after being asked by Cairns, he was approached by Andrew-Fitch Holland, who called him on Skype to try and persuade him to give evidence. The Skype call was recorded by Vincent and the defence of Cairns questioned the motive behind recording a Skype conversation. Vincent was accused of wanting to do it as a recourse for blackmail later on. The lawyer suggested that Vincent wanted to come clean because of a number of reasons including helping himself, helping the ICC's anti-corruption unit and to avoid criminal prosecution in England.

The Skype call forms the crux of Cairns' and his lawyer's perjury trial.

"You thought, if I can give them a big enough name that will help me in all sorts of ways. And that name was Chris Cairns," said Cairns' lawyer."The real reason to tape call, I suggest, was that you thought my client was going to offer you payment to make statement. You hoped to catch my client out.It might be useful, with that information in it, to blackmail Cairns or help the other side, Modi?," said the lawyer of Fitch-Holland. Vincent denied all the charges.

Stephen Fleming confrontation

"He said 'I know you're dirty, I know Chris is dirty'. It was quite harrowing for a respected figure to corner you in a bar.It didn't make me feel good, I just wanted to run and hide," said Vincent on his interaction with Stephen Fleming. It happened during a Champions League game when Fleming, coach of Chennai Super Kings met Vincent who was playing for Auckland.

Cairns' lawyer denied the statement given by Vincent saying that Fleming never mentioned Cairns' name.

Vincent has finished giving evidence and the case continues with Shane Bond and Brendon McCullum scheduled to be witnesses.

Lou Vincent is one of the witnesses in the perjury trial of Chris Cairns. New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, along with former cricketers Stephen Fleming, Shane Bond, Andre Adams and New Zealand Cricket chief David White, will provide evidence in the case. Cairns, who is accused of perverting the course of justice, has continued to vehemently deny the charges he faces. The charges relate to a libel case that Cairns brought against Lalit Modi, the founder of Indian Premier League (IPL), in March 2012. Cairns successfully sued Modi for GPB 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. Andrew Fitch-Holland, Cairns's lead adviser in the action against Modi, also faces a count of perverting the course of justice.