Chris Cairns

Christopher Lance Cairns, ONZM (born 13 June 1970) is a former New Zealand cricketer and former ODI captain, who played for the Black Caps 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.

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.

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.

Cairns also played for Northland in the Hawke Cup. He has joined the Indian Cricket League, and was the captain of the Chandigarh Lions till 2008. He is currently playing for Nottinghamshire in the English Twenty20 cup competition.

Cairns was a destructive batsman who could hit sixes straight down the ground and in his earlier days was an intelligent fast-medium bowler. 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).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 fourth highest wicket taker in Tests, after Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori and Chris Martin.

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.

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.”

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 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. 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.”

Retirement

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 Bjrn 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”.

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”.

In December 2013, Cairns was the subject of allegations in an ICC investigation into match-fixing. 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. Cairns has rejected these claims.

Former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent, an admitted match fixer, has said that Cairns had approached him about fixing matches. 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. 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.

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. On 12 September 2014, the Metropolitan Police announced that they would charge Cairns with perjury stemming from the Modi libel trial. He was acquitted of charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice on November 30, 2015.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Test Centuries

Chris Cairns’s Test Centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	120	16	Zimbabwe	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1996	Drawn
2	126	35	India	Hamilton, New Zealand	Seddon Park	1999	Drawn
3	109	46	Australia	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	2000	Lost
4	124	49	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	2000	Won
5	158	58	South Africa	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	2004	Won

One Day International Centuries

Chris Cairns’s One Day International Centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	103	32	India	Pune, India	Nehru Stadium	1995	Lost
2	115	100	India	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	1999	Won
3	102*	130	India	Nairobi, Kenya	Gymkhana Club Ground	2000	Won
4	102*	141	South Africa	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	2002	Won

His third century helped New Zealand to win their maiden title in an ICC award. So far this title remains the only victory for New Zealand in an ODI tournament involving teams more than 2.

Test 5-wicket hauls

Chris Cairns’s Test 5-wicket hauls
#	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	5/75	2	Sri Lanka	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1991	Drawn
2	6/52	4	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1992	Lost
3	5/137	18	Pakistan	Rawalpindi, Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium	1996	Lost
4	5/50	24	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1997	Drawn
5	5/62	33	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club	1998	Lost
6	6/77	37	England	London, England	Lord’s	1999	Won
7	5/31	39	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	1999	Won
8	7/27	43	West Indies	Hamilton, New Zealand	Seddon Park	1999	Won
9	5/44	44	West Indies	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1999	Won
10	5/31	48	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	2000	Won
11	5/146	50	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	2001	Drawn
12	7/53	53	Bangladesh	Hamilton, New Zealand	Seddon Park	2001	Won
13	5/79	62	England	Nottingham, England, United Kingdom	Trent Bridge	2004	Lost

Test 10-Wicket Hauls

Chris Cairns’s Test 10-Wicket Hauls
#	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	10/100	43	West Indies	Hamilton, New Zealand	Seddon Park	1999	Won

One Day International 5-Wicket Hauls

Chris Cairns’s One Day International 5-Wicket Hauls
#	Figures	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	5/42	83	Australia	Napier, New Zealand	McLean Park	1998	Won

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match Awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	India	Nehru Stadium, Pune	24 November 1995	103 (87 balls: 104, 46) ; 10-1-37-3	India won by 5 wickets.
2	Sri Lanka	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	7 November 1996	71 (91 balls: 14, 46) ; 9.1-0-39-2, 1 Ct.	New Zealand won by 29 runs.
3	Sri Lanka	Basin Reserve, Wellington	27 March 1997	56 (78 balls: 74) ; DNB	New Zealand won by 69 runs.
4	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club, Harare	5 October 1997	71 (78 balls: 94, 16) ; 7-1-26-1	New Zealand won by 83 runs.
5	India	AMI Stadium, Christchurch	19 January 1999	115 (80 balls: 74, 76) ; 6-0-48-1	New Zealand won by 70 runs.
6	India	Nehru Stadium, Guwahati	14 November 1999	80 (114 balls: 44, 36) ; 5-1-14-1	New Zealand won by 48 runs.
7	India	Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi	15 October 2000	10-2-40-0 ; 102* (113 balls: 84, 26)	New Zealand won 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy.
8	South Africa	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane	19 January 2002	10-0-44-2, 1 Ct. ; 102* (99 balls: 94, 36)	New Zealand won by 4 wickets.
9	Bangladesh	MA Aziz Stadium, Chittagong	2 November 2004	74 (83 balls: 14, 56) ; 4-2-5-0	New Zealand won by 138 runs.