In a case like this there are no winners,” said Chris Cairns on the steps of Southwark crown court moments after being acquitted of perjury and perverting the course of justice following a gruelling trial that spilled into its ninth week but gave an all-too-brief glimpse into the murky world of match-fixing in cricket.
In a sense the former New Zealand all-rounder is right. While Cairns and his co-defendant, Andrew Fitch-Holland, were visibly relieved on hearing the not guilty verdicts, the result leaves little sense of celebration overall, instead throwing up questions as to how corruption is dealt with by the sport.
While the goal of eradicating match-fixing may be unrealistic in a year-round cycle of international fixtures and domestic Twenty20 leagues – the International Cricket Council chief executive, Dave Richardson, said as much recently – it is surely still worth striving for.
Because even though Cairns was adjudged not to have lied to a libel court in 2012 when he said he had “never” cheated in cricket, and now returns to his home in Australia emotionally drained by more than two brutal months in the spotlight, the details to emerge from his lengthy trial still paint a worrying picture for the game.
The former New Zealand batsman and key witness Lou Vincent may be of dubious character – he was banned from cricket for life in 2014 after admitting to manipulating games – but the story of his time spent as a roving Twenty20 cricketer should not be written off as merely a one-off or the ramblings of a troubled soul. Initially corrupted in the defunct Indian Cricket League in 2008 by both the promise of cash and a prostitute in his hotel room, Vincent would go on to forge a globetrotting career of underperformance at the behest of illegal bookmakers, with English county cricket among the competitions tainted by his actions.
And the response of the ICC to claims made by a highly respected cricketer such as Brendon McCullum must similarly be learned from if their anti-corruption unit is to shed its reputation among the players as a toothless tiger.
Asked by Cairns’ QC, Orlando Pownall, why the ICC had done nothing in response to McCullum’s initial statement in 2011, three years after he said no to alleged approaches, the anti-corruption officer John Rhodes replied the Indian Cricket League, where Cairns saw out his playing career, was not under the governing body’s jurisdiction given its unsanctioned status. This “not on our patch” response should, in itself, be troubling, not least given the number of cricketers who returned to “official” cricket after the rebel ICL tournament folded in 2008; Vincent was just one.
A similarly worrying revelation came when the court heard how Rhodes had lost his diary for 2011 and, when speaking to the former fast bowler Daryl Tuffey in 2014 about rumours surrounding his involvement, he opted not to take notes of the conversation because it was “not of any significance”.
The fear is that after the heat McCullum and his former team-mate Daniel Vettori faced under cross-examination, the trial will have done little to help persuade others to report claims of match-fixing.
The ICC must move to assure players – whose livelihoods rely on the public’s trust in the sport – that reports of illicit approaches will be dealt with in a more watertight fashion that leaves nothing to chance while redoubling its efforts and increasing its resources in the wider fight against corruption.
For while Cairns has been acquitted of perjury by a jury in London, the sport itself has been given anything but a clean bill of health.
