Former ICL team-mates reitrate match-fixing claim against Cairns

Wellington,Mar 13(ANI): Three former Indian Cricket League team-mates have reconfirmed that former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns was involved in the match-fixing.

Former Chandigarh Lions players Gaurav Gupta, Karanveer Singh and Rajesh Sharma gave evidence before a London High Court via a live video linkup on the the sixth day of Cairns' libel suit against Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi.

Gupta alleged that Cairns told him to score "no more than five runs" during a match between Chandigarh and the Mumbai Champs.

"No, Chris Cairns told me between the innings and on the pitch as well," stuff.co.nz quoted Gupta, as saying on the video link.

Karanveer described a meeting in which Mongia allegedly told him and his father that everyone within the ICL knew about fixing. He said that he was shocked and "broken from inside" on hearing the news.

"This talk was about match-fixing, I was very much convinced," Karanveer said.

Sharma reiterated his claim that Cairns told him to "keep quiet" about match-fixing, and said that he had suspected from this conversation that Cairns was involved in it.

Cairns has sued Modi over a 2010 tweet that alleged the former had been barred from the IPL because of an involvement with match-fixing in the rival ICL.

Cairns, who was captain of Chandigarh in the ICL Twenty20 competition, has rejected the allegation as "wholly untrue" but had his contract terminated in October 2008.

According to the official line, Cairns had breached his ICL contract for failing to disclose an injury.

The trial comes in the wake of cricket fixing revelations from Indian bookmaker Vicky Seth in the sting operation conducted by a British newspaper, Sunday Times. (ANI)