“I cannot remember the exact words but it was something like ‘how will they ever prove it?'”
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Former New Zealand pace bowler Andre Adams has told Southwark Crown Court that Chris Cairns tried to coax him into joining his match-fixing operation as the latter was confident that the Indian Cricket League (ICL) would not be able to prove anything.
Adams, who was speaking via videolink, played for the Kolkata Tigers in the now defunct ICL in 2008 and revealed that Cairns first brought up the subject of match-fixing when they were having dinner in India. However, the 40-year-old was unable to recall what Cairns had said word for word.
“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,” Adams told the court. “I cannot remember the exact words but it was something like ‘how will they ever prove it?'”
Adams also admitted that he could not bring himself to report Cairns as the ex-all-rounder was one of his idols.
“For us and beyond he was a leader, certainly one of my heroes,” Adams said. “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.”
Cairns was able to recruit Lou Vincent in his operation and the former batsman later approached Adams at a café in Manchester’s Trafford Centre in the summer of 2008.
“You do not have to do it but you can make some money here,” Vincent had told Adams. “I do not want you to miss out.”
Vincent, who was banned for life after admitting his involvement in match-fixing, recently conceded that he had been suffering from depression at the time he approached Adams. When asked if this was true, Adams confirmed that Vincent had been in a “pretty fragile” state. As a result, Adams opted not to report Vincent as he was afraid of the repercussions.
“I just went along with it really,” Adams said. “I did not feel like it was the time or place to make him feel like he had done a bad thing. Technically our time was up and we were outcasts in internationals … I just said: ‘Okay, whatever, send it through and I will look at it’, but I never intended to have a look.
“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, former New Zealand seamer Kyle Mills admitted that he was “gobsmacked” when captain Brendon McCullum told him and Daniel Vettori that Cairns had tried to convince him to get involved in match-fixing.
McCullum made the revelation to Mills and Vettori in 2009 and they told him to report Cairns to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption officials after a meeting in Bangladesh two years later.
“I was pretty gobsmacked with that information alone,” said Mills. “He [McCullum] and Chris Cairns had met and asked Brendon if he could be involved in spot-fixing and that he himself was involved in it.”
The case continues.