Chris Cairns - Cheat or Victim?

New Zealand Cricket, once considered a corruption-free bastion, has had its reputation fully under the microscope over the last 2 weeks or so since revelations emerged of Lou Vincent spot-fixing Auckland Aces games during the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa.

Since then, a full blown bush fire has started and even current captain, Brendon McCullum has not been spared, feeling the full brunt of the flames after being linked with player X who asked him to fix some cricket games in the IPL.

Player X is widely considered to be Chris Cairns who has already been in the spotlight for match-fixing after it was revealed that he, Daryl Tuffey and Vincent are the former international players being investigated for match-fixing.

As we all know, Cairns has been spending much of his post-playing days fighting the allegations that he has been match-fixing, even winning a court case in the House of Lords against Lalit Modi, former IPL boss for defamation.

However, in scenes not dissimilar to that of a certain Texan cyclist who apparently won a bike race in France 8 times, it seems as though the water around Cairns is not crystal clear at all with the allegations of match-fixing hanging on to him like that annoying piece of chewing gum you stepped on.

Chris and Lance - the similarities are uncanny!

I think when you're guilty, there are clouds always going to be hanging around you from that smoking gun and much as Cairns has chosen to put on the demeanour of being a typical Kiwi bloke albeit one who has played international cricket very successfully, and who has advocated rail safety through his foundation, I believe there is a reason why the clouds are choosing to hang around.

Cairns has spent a lot of time in India with the IPL and ICL and has plenty of connections in the cricket world, some light and some dark as we are starting to see. His outspoken nature as shown on the field and in the commentary box means he can potentially intimidating to his teammates - as Lou Vincent's ex-wife has recently testified.

Watch this space. I think we'll soon find out very soon given how keen New Zealand Cricket and the ICC are to find an end to this cheap who dunnit story.