AP, Wellington :
New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum says he stands by the evidence he gave at the recent perjury trial of former teammate Chris Cairns, although Cairns’ acquittal has raised questions over whether he was believed by a Crown Court jury in London.
McCullum was the prosecution’s leading witness in the trial of Cairns, the former New Zealand allrounder who was alleged to have lied in a libel action against Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi who had accused him of involvement in match fixing.
In evidence, McCullum said he had been approached by Cairns in 2008 and encouraged to become involved in match-fixing. Cairns’ legal team sought to discredit McCullum’s evidence by pointing out he took three years to report the alleged approach, then changed elements of his story on later occasions.
On the eve New Zealand’s first test against Sri Lanka in Dunedin, McCullum faced the media on Wednesday for the first time since Cairns’ acquittal. Few questions at the conference related to the test match; instead McCullum was quizzed on his evidence and the fallout from the Cairns trial.
McCullum said he stood by the evidence he gave at the Southwark Crown Court in London and did not believe his reputation had been damaged by the jury’s apparent rejection of the case against Cairns.
