Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns has won a libel action against Lalit Modi in London that leaves the one-time chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) facing a bill of more than £500,000 ($794,000). In the first libel action heard in England against a post on Twitter, Cairns, 41, was awarded £90,000 damages after Judge David Bean dismissed fixing allegations levelled against the cricketer by Modi. Meanwhile, Modi was also ordered to pay an additional £400,000 on account of Cairns’s costs to his solicitors within 28 days.
The figures do not include Modi’s own legal costs. Cairns sued over an “unequivocal allegation” of match-fixing on Modi’s Twitter account on the micro-blogging site in January 2010. Bean said Modi had “singularly failed” to provide any reliable evidence Cairns was involved in match-fixing or spot-fixing. Modi responded to Monday’s ruling by telling his Twitter followers: “I have seen the judgment. All I want to say at the moment is that we are appealing the Judgment.” Cairns, not in court on Monday, said in a statement: “Today’s verdict lifts a dark cloud that has been over me for the past two years. I feel mixed emotions. “Firstly, sadness that I should ever have had to put myself, my friends and my family through this because of one man’s misdirected allegations. “But I also feel great joy because my past career has come through unscathed and remains intact and because I had the courage to stand up in the highest court to defend my name.”
