I was acting under Cairns' orders: Vincent

Confessed match fixer Lou Vincent has testified that he acted under “direct orders” from his captain and former New Zealand teammate Chris Cairns when he agreed to help manipulate the outcome of matches in the now defunct Indian Cricket League in 2008.

Vincent, the ex-Black Caps batsman who was banned for life from all cricket last year after admitting his involvement in match-fixing in India and the UK, was giving evidence at the London trial of Cairns, who is charged with perjury and with perverting the course of justice.

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“I was under direct orders from Chris Cairns to get involved in fixing," said Vincent, who testified he had under-performed in four matches in 2008.

“I looked up to Chris, he was a role model. All of a sudden I had been invited into this little world.

“There was talk of the tournament and how every game is going to be fixed.”

Vincent claimed that Cairns promised him $50,000 per game to under-perform, but even though he had never received the money he was promised, he did not confront Cairns over the matter because he felt “too intimidated”.

He also alleged that Cairns had threatened him with a cricket bat after he “messed up” a proposed fix in a match.

After being dropped from the New Zealand team in 2007, Vincent said he suffered from depression and went to play for the Chandigarh Lions in the ICL, a franchise of which Cairns was the captain.

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Vincent told the Southwark Crown Court in London that he was introduced to match-fixing that year when a bookmaker came to his hotel room in India and offered him a large bundle of cash, and also told him that a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel was a present to keep the cricketer company.

“I was aware that she was available for sex ... that was when the penny started to drop," Vincent testified.

Vincent said he later reported the approach to his agent, and also spoke about it with Cairns who told him he had acted properly before then recruiting his former NZ teammate to his own match fixing operation.

"Immediately I went to Chris Cairns and told him what had happened," Vincent told the court.

“The deal, the room, the woman and being offered the money and how I went to report what had just happened.

"Chris was obviously interested, then there was a pause for a short period of time.

"And then he turned to me, looked at me and said 'You did the right thing' and 'That's good cover. Right, you're working for me now’."

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Vincent described to the Court how he received instructions "either on the bus or at breakfast" in the matches that he played in the 2008 ICL tournament, but claimed he struggled to “master the art of getting out”.

"I was under instructions to fix," Vincent said. “When you are under-performing you just play dead-bat shots, play more defensive, you can control your scoring tempo but the actual art of getting out is actually quite hard.

"One of the easiest ways is to get run out, hit the ball to a fielder and keep running.

“Try to get stumped. Miss a straight ball.

"I didn't master the art of getting out very well.

“Cairns suggested if I was playing club cricket in England I practise the art of getting out."

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Vincent said he had been suffering from mental health problems and depression at the time of his involvement in the ICL and that it “felt good to be part of a gang".

According to his testimony, that “gang" also included ex-New Zealand allrounder Daryl Tuffey and former India batsman Dinesh Mongia.

Cairns, who played 62 Tests and 215 one-day internationals for New Zealand and captained his country in both formats, has pleaded not guilty to both charges that arise from the 2012 libel action he won against former Indian cricket official Lalit Modi.

Modi had posted allegations on social media platform Twitter that Cairns was involved in fixing in the ICL, and a UK High Court awarded Cairns £90,000 in damages after it found Modi had libelled him.

Cairns has since been accused by the UK Crown Prosecutions Service of lying under oath in that case because he "wilfully made a statement … which he knew to be false, namely that he has 'never, ever cheated at cricket and nor would he ever contemplate such a thing’”.

The 48-year-old, who was named as one of Widen Cricket Almanack’s Cricketers of the Year in 2000, could face a prison sentence of up to seven years if found guilty.

Cairns has always maintained his innocence of the charge and denied any involvement in match-fixing.

His former barrister, Andrew Fitch Holland, is also facing a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice to which he has pleaded not guilty.