Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns feels “complete vindication” and is ready for a new role in cricket after winning a libel action against former Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi.
In the first libel action heard in England against a post on Twitter, Cairns, 41, was last month awarded 90,000 pounds ($143,000) damages after the judge dismissed fixing allegations levelled against the cricketer by Modi.
Modi was also ordered to pay an additional 400,000 pounds in costs.
Cairns said he was “never going to back down” against one of international cricket’s most powerful figures.
In an interview published in The Canberra Times, Cairns said the case had consumed his life and ostracised him from the cricketing community.
Cairns said he had to fight to restore his reputation, adding that match fixing were some of the “dirtiest words in sport”. “I took it as far as I could go to clear my name and that’s what I had to do,” Cairns told the newspaper.
“It was a long hard road to get that complete vindication.
“An hour won’t go past when you’re not thinking about it. It’s a massive distraction and something that didn’t need to be in my life but I had to deal with it.
“It’ll take a good while to get out of the system and realise it’s not part of my life and I’ll have more time for all things family and professionally.”
Cairns and his wife have settled in Australia’s national capital because his young daughter was born profoundly deaf and, after a cochlear implant, receives regular therapy in Canberra.
Cairns, who was in the witness box for eight hours during the London court case, said he reacted angrily when it was revealed his accuser, Modi, would not take the stand.
“Lalit Modi and I are poles apart in life — financially, religiously, where we live, we are the complete opposite,” he told the newspaper.
“But the one place where you are equal, regardless of whether you’re a billionaire, a cricketer, male or female, is in the witness stand. Everybody’s the same in there.
“We had the courage to stand up and say what we believed and Mr Modi chose not to go down that route so that was the frustrating thing.”
Cairns said he has kept away from cricket over the past two years, but would now like to play a role with local cricket and New Zealand cricket, if asked.
A representative of Modi’s told the newspaper that his client planned to appeal the court’s judgement.
