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Chris Cairns

Personal information
Full name	Christopher Lance Cairns
Born	(1970-06-13) 13 June 1970 (age 48) Picton, Marlborough, New Zealand
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right arm fast-medium
Role	All-rounder
Relations	Lance Cairns (father)
International information
National side	New Zealand (1989–2006)
Test debut (cap 168)	24 November 1989 v Australia
Last Test	13 June 2004 v England
ODI debut (cap 76)	13 February 1991 v England
Last ODI	8 January 2006 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.	6
T20I debut	17 February 2005 v Australia
Last T20I	16 February 2006 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1988–2008	Nottinghamshire
1988/89	Northern Districts
1990/91–2005/06	Canterbury
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 62 215 217 424 Runs scored 3,320 4,950 10,702 10,367 Batting average 33.53 29.46 35.32 32.60 100s/50s 5/22 4/26 13/71 9/55 Top score 158 115 158 143 Balls bowled 11,698 8,168 16,620 16,620 Wickets 218 201 647 455 Bowling average 29.40 32.80 28.31 27.99 5 wickets in innings 13 1 30 6 10 wickets in match 1 0 6 0 Best bowling 7/27 5/42 8/47 6/12 Catches/stumpings 14/– 66/– 78/– 118/–
Source: CricInfo, 26 November 2008

Christopher Lance Cairns, ONZM (born 13 June 1970) is a former New Zealand cricketer and former ODI captain, who played for the New Zealand cricket team as an all-rounder. Cairns finished his Test career with a batting average of 33.53 and a bowling average of 29.40. In 2000, he was named as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

He is son of former New Zealand cricketer Lance Cairns. He starred in both the One-day and Test New Zealand teams, as well as the Canterbury New Zealand domestic championship team. After his playing career Cairns went on to become a commentator with Sky Sport New Zealand.

Personal life

His sister Louise was killed at Rolleston in an August 1993 train accident; in September 2008 he completed a 1,001 km (622 mi) walk promoting rail safety awareness.^[1]

Cairns is married to Melanie Croser, an Australian who works for the sports marketing group Octagon in Sydney. It is his third marriage. Cairns lives in Canberra and will start playing for the local club North Canberra Gungahlin Eagles in the 2011/12 season. In his first he scored 141 off 66 balls, including 13 sixes. During this knock his last 90 runs came off 27 balls.^{[citation needed]}

Domestic career

Cairns also played for Northland in the Hawke Cup. He had joined the Indian Cricket League, and was the captain of the Chandigarh Lions till its closure in 2008. He later went on to play for Nottinghamshire in the English Twenty20 cup competition.

International career

Cairns batting

Cairns was a destructive batsman who could hit sixes straight down the ground and in his earlier days was an intelligent fast-medium bowler.^[2] Since then, persistent injuries have forced him to drop his pace and rely more on his hard-to-read slower ball.

With the bat, Cairns has been the author of some of New Zealand cricket's most memorable innings, including his unbeaten 102 to win the final of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy for New Zealand against India in Kenya, and his 158 from just 172 balls in a Test against South Africa in 2004. Cairns knocked Shane Warne out of Australia's bowling attack during a 2000 test in Wellington when he launched several sixes out of the Basin Reserve and onto the adjacent street. Cairns formerly held the world record for most sixes in Tests (87, since surpassed by Adam Gilchrist), and for a time held the New Zealand record for fastest century in ODIs (75 balls, currently owned by Corey Anderson with 36 balls).

ICC KnockOut Trophy

Cairns was also the part of the victorius New Zealand campaign during the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy where they beat India in the final to lift their only title in major ICC global event. He played his part in the final and helped the Kiwis side, by scoring a match winning knock of 102*. Finally New Zealand went onto win the final and registered the highest ever chase in an ICC Champions Trophy final (265).^[3]He also went onto become the first player to score a century in an ICC Champions Trophy final(was previously called as ICC Knockout Trophy) in a winning cause.He became only the third player to score a century in a Champions Trophy final after Philo Wallace and Sourav Ganguly.

Making history

Cairns' career-best bowling performance in Tests was 7/27 against the West Indies in 1999, and he is New Zealand's Sixth highest wicket taker in Tests, after Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Chris Martin. ^[4]

He is also one of only eight players to have reached the all-rounder's double of 200 wickets and 3000 runs. Out of these seven players, Cairns reached the double 2nd fastest (58 Test) behind Ian Botham. In ODIs, Cairns came close to another double of 200 wickets and 5000 runs. Cairns finished his ODI career on 4950 runs, just 50 short. Cairns Test batting average at number seven (44.02) is the 5th best average for that position of all time.^[5]

The New Zealand Herald journalist, Richard Boock said about Cairns: "It's not a scientific measure of course, but if Cairns' body had held together long enough for him to have played 100 Tests, his figures extrapolate out to something like 5334 runs and 351 wickets – very similar to those of Botham." He went on to say "He was, and should be remembered as, one of the game's best all-rounders."^[6]

Late career

During the Lord's Test against England, he bowled England wicket-keeper Chris Read for zero. Read was ducking to the ball, what he thought was a beamer from Chris Cairns but was a well-disguised slower ball.

Cairns also played in the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal ODI, at the MCG. Cairns played for the ICC World XI and scored 69 off 47 balls before being stumped by Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan. During his innings, Cairns put a 91 run partnership on with his captain, Ricky Ponting. With the ball, Cairns picked up 1–37 off 6 overs.

Injuries plagued Cairns throughout his career. There remains some debate over his statistics and how they reflected his ability.^[6] In Cairns career he played 62 Test and missed a further 55 due to injury. Sidharth Monga writing in 2009 that Cairns' career returns "were a poor justification of his prodigious talent."^[2]

Retirement

Cairns bowling for the Canterbury Wizards in 2006

Cairns retired from the New Zealand Test team in 2004. On 22 January 2006, Cairns announced his retirement from ODIs in a press conference. A Twenty20 match against the West Indies on 16 February 2006 was his last game representing New Zealand. He was also part of the ICC World XI that played in the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal matches.

The New Zealand Herald compared his retirement to those of Michael Jordan and Björn Borg on 15 February 2006. Cairns also left the door open for a comeback, but said "I don't think I could ever be tempted back".^[7]

In Cairns' final game, he bowled four overs for 24 and no wicket and scored a nine-ball duck, before being bowled by Chris Gayle. He also missed the stumps in both attempts during the bowl off. Cricinfo describe his final international as "an unfitting farewell" and that "he deserved better".^[8]

"Alleged" match fixing

In December 2013, Cairns was the subject of allegations in an ICC investigation into match-fixing.^[9] He is alleged to have attempted to manipulate games in India when he was captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the short lived Indian Cricket League.^[10] Cairns has rejected these claims.^[11]

Former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent, an admitted match fixer, has said that Cairns had approached him about fixing matches.^[12] New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum also told the Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) of the International Cricket Council that Cairns made a match fixing approach to him.^[13] Cairns insists that he has never fixed a match, saying Vincent wanted to "mitigate his sins by blaming others" and taking issue with McCullum having waited three years before approaching the ICC.^[13]

In March 2012 Cairns successfully sued former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi for libel, after Modi posted on Twitter in 2010 that Cairns had been involved in match-fixing during 2008. He won costs and damages.^[14] On 12 September 2014, the Metropolitan Police announced that they would charge Cairns with perjury stemming from the Modi libel trial.^[15] He was acquitted of charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice on November 30, 2015. ^[16]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Cairns.

• 
  Chris Cairns at ESPNcricinfo
  


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  Chris Cairns from New Zealand Cricket