Rod Marsh reveals he had once refused to sign a bat with Chris Cairns' autograph

Rod Marsh revealed that he had once refused to sign a cricket bat that had Cairns’ autograph on it

Former Australian wicketkeeper Rod Marsh refused to sign a cricket bat, which already had Chris Cairns’ autograph, it was revealed during the latest hearing in the perjury case in which the former New Zealand all-rounder is prime accused, ESPNcricinfo reports.

Marsh's refusal act occurred in 2009, a year before Lalit Modi, IPL’s commissioner then, had tweeted about Cairns' alleged activities, an act which formed the basis of Cairns' libel action against Modi in 2012.

"Rod Marsh said I'm not having anything to do with Mr Cairns, he wouldn't sign a cricket bat," Sasha Wass, the crown prosecutor, said to Andrew Fitch-Holland, Cairns’ former attorney.

Following Marsh's snub, Fitch-Holland asked the world governing body whether it had any evidence that Cairns was a match-fixer. It turned out that the ICC was not investigating him as the ICL was an unauthorised tournament.

"It seemed that someone was saying something, because of the Rod Marsh incident, and we just thought 'this can't be allowed to continue'," Fitch-Holland told the court."I took that to be confirmation from the ICC that they weren't sniffing around Chris," he added.

Mel Cairns refuses claims

Meanwhile, Chris Cairns’ wife, Mel, last week refused allegations regarding match-fixing discussions in a Manchester bar, saying it never took place. When asked by Cairns' barrister Orlando Pownall, Mel quashed suggestions that such discussion of fixing had taken place. Mrs Cairns, who appeared via video link, replied: "Absolutely not”, after being quizzed on the same.

The jury had earlier told about a night out in Manchester in 2008, where the former wife of Lou Vincent gave an evidence that Cairns had said he was confident he would get away with fixing because "everyone was doing it in India". She is one of the main prosecution witnesses in this case.

Vincent was already involved with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) alongside Cairns, and playing for Lancashire at the time he said he was under “direct orders” to fix matches.

McClenaghan to replace Neesham

New Zealand were dealt another blow on their Australia tour as all-rounder James Neesham was ruled out of the three-Test series due to back strain.The left-arm pacer Mitchell McClenaghan will be replacing Neesham for the rest of the matches.

Similarly, New Zealand also chose Neil Wagner, another left-arm pacer, as a substitute for Tim Southee, who suffered a disc injury and couldn’t bowl in Australia’s second innings.