Cairns is charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to a 2012 libel case. He denies the charges.

Going head to head with prosecutor Sasha Wass QC, Cairns was confronted in cross examination about why people would falsely accuse him of being involved in match fixing.

“If you’re telling the truth about all of this, would you agree that you’ve been the most unfortunate individual?” Wass said as she opened her cross examination at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

“You have been accused not once of match fixing, not twice, but on three separate occasions.”

Wass asked why “reasonable, sane people make up false allegations against others without there being a reason”, repeating the question in various forms when Cairns failed to give a direct answers.

Asked specifically about Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum, who has told the court Cairns tried to recruit him to match fix twice in 2008, Cairns noted the inconsistencies between McCullum’s statements.

“He’s doing what’s good for Brendon.”

Cairns also disputed evidence from Lou Vincent, who said he fixed games on orders from Cairns, and Vincent’s ex-wife Eleanor Riley, who said Cairns reassured her he would not get caught.

“So he’s lied and she’s lied?” Wass asked.

Cairns replied: “Yes, correct.”

The exchanges between lawyer and defendant were heated at times.

At one stage Cairns told Wass: “I can see you’re getting riled, but I’m just trying to answer the questions.”

When the lawyer asked for “a simple yes or no answer”, and Cairns refused to comply, Wass asked: “Are you trying to make this cross examination last for weeks and weeks?”

“May I suggest you just answer the questions rather than arguing,” she said.

Justice Nigel Sweeney intervened, telling Cairns “the ground rules are very clear”.

“Your obligation is to answer the question. Not to give a speech, but to answer the question,” he said.

“It’s very important that you direct your answer to the question, and it is an answer.”

Wass delved into Cairns’s finances, specifically $US250,000 he received from a diamond dealer when he moved to Dubai.

“I’m going to suggest it was a reward for your part in fixing matches,” Wass said.

Cairns denied that, saying the money was a retainer, and that while he did not keep a diary of his appearances in Dubai, he did “PR activity and client interaction”.

When asked why the diamond business owners weren’t at court to give evidence of that, Cairns said he had struggled to find people to speak on his behalf.

“Because of the media, and what has been created, I am simply toxic,” he told the court.

“With regards to getting people to come along and support me, it has been very difficult.”

-AAP