Something about the game didn’t look right: Shane Bond tells jury

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The pacer told the jury that during TV replays Cairns looked particularly unhappy whenever the Lions’ wicketkeeper scored runs quickly. “He didn’t look happy …I remember watching with some other players and commenting that it didn’t look quite right,” the NZ Herald quoted Bond as saying.

Bond, who was in the United States, deposed before the Southwark Crown Court over video link to give evidence in a trial where Cairns faces charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice. Bond’s statement follows Brendon McCullum’s admission on how Cairns had tried to drag him into spot-fixing.

A former police officer, Bond also said that McCullum had told him how Cairns had tried to lure him to the world of fixing. He told the court that he knew Cairns since the 1990s and had a great relationship. He said that they were friends and so were their wives and that he looked up to the allrounder when the two played for New Zealand.

Former New Zealand seamer Andre Adams, who also appeared via video link, told the court how Cairns once told them that the authorities could do nothing to tackle match-fixing in ICL.

“I can remember Chris saying: ‘If there was match-fixing, what can they do? How will they get anyone? It is not a sanctioned event.’ I cannot remember the exact words but it was something like ‘how will they ever prove it?’” Adams was quoted as saying by The Guardian. He said that Cairns made the comment during a dinner with the New Zealand team in India.

Adams said it was not something he expected Cairns to say. “For us and beyond he was a leader, certainly one of my heroes. He took time out for me when I was struggling in 2006-07 and talked to me about my game. In New Zealand he was certainly a hero but in India he was like a god really.”

The 40-year-old said he knew both Cairns and Vincent. Adams, who was also part of the ICL in 2008, told the jury that it was Vincent who approached him with a proposal to fix matches and earn some money.

Detailing the approach, Adams said Vincent came up with the proposal when the two met at a cafe at Manchester’s Trafford Centre in 2008. According to Adams Vincent told him: “I have got this opportunity for you. You can make money. You do not have to do it but you can make some money here. I do not want you to miss out.”

While Adams said he was not interested, he claimed he did not want to report his friend because he knew Vincent had a “pretty fragile” mental state. “I just went along with it really. … I just said: ‘OK, whatever, send it through and I will look at it’, but I never intended to have a look,” Adams said.

The Guardian reported that Adams feared Vincent might do “something stupid” and harm himself. He said: “I felt like if I had reported him … it might be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I did not want to push him to the edge.”

Meanwhile, another former New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills said he was “gobsmacked” when he heard from McCullum that Cairns had approached him to be involved in spot-fixing. Recalling the 2009 conversation, Mills told the court, also via video link: “I was pretty gobsmacked with that information alone. He (McCullum) and Cairns had met and asked Brendon if he could be involved in spot-fixing and that he himself was involved in it.”