Chris Cairns

• February 2006: Chris Cairns retires from international cricket
• 2007: Cairns joins the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL). Captains the Chandigarh Lions in 2007 and 2008 in the ICL, a team which includes former Black Caps team-mates Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey.
• 2008: Cairns has his contract terminated after three games of the third edition of the ICL, with his failure to disclose an injury the official reason given.
• 2008: Cairns plays for Nottinghamshire in the English Twenty20 cup competition before retiring from cricket at the end of 2008.
• January 2010: Former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi alleges on Twitter that Cairns was involved in match-fixing during the 2008 season of the ICL, while captain of the Chandigarh Lions.
• March 2012: Cairns successfully sues Modi for libel. He wins $174,000 in damages and $775,000 in court costs. The circumstances of Cairns' exit from the now defunct ICL in 2008 is a major focus of the case.
• December 2013: Cairns, along with two fellow former Black Caps Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey, are named in international media reports as being subject to an International Cricket Council (ICC) investigation over

allegations of match-fixing. Soon after, Vincent and Tuffey publicly say they are co-operating with investigators while Cairns complains he is being "kept in the dark". Tuffey has repeatedly denied any involvement in

match-fixing.

• March 2014: London based barrister Andrew Fitch-Holland, who gave evidence on Cairns behalf at the 2012 trial, is arrested by Metropolitan police under suspicion of perverting the course of justice in relation to the

libel case.

• 27 March 2014: Cairns confirms that British police have finally contacted him over allegations of match fixing.
• 14 May 2014: Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports that former Black Cap Lou Vincent has provided the ICC's anti-corruption unit "with a treasure trove of information about matches which were targeted for spot-

fixing and the names of players" involved.

• May 2014: In the days following, British media publish excerpts of leaked confidential statements from Vincent and current New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. McCullum's sworn evidence is that "Player X"

approached him in India, then England, in 2008 to fix.

• 30 May 2014: Cairns returns from London after being interviewed by the Metropolitan police, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the ICC's anti-corruption unit. Cairns says it is extraordinary that Brendon

McCullum took three years to report a conversation in which he claims Cairns tried to involve him in match-fixing.**

• July 2014: Lou Vincent stuns the cricketing world by admitting to fixing while at the Chandigarh Lions in 2008, then in the England Counties scene, and during Auckland Aces matches in the 2012 Champions League

in South Africa. Hours later Vincent is banned for life by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

• 25 September 2014: Cairns is formally charged by the Metropolitan Police for perjury relating to his 2012 libel trial with Lalit Modi. At the same time London barrister Andrew Fitch-Holland is charged with one count

of perverting the course of justice. New Zealand Cricket says the perjury charges laid against Cairns are separate to the match fixing investigation being carried out by the ICC.

• January 2015: At a plea and case management hearing Cairns and Andrew Fitch-Holland plead not guilty to their respective charges.
• 5th October 2015: The trial of Chris Cairns and his co-defendant Andrew Fitch-Holland is due to start at the Crown Court in Southwark in London and is set to run for four weeks.

** No one has yet given a definitive date on when McCullum first told the ICC of the alleged approach by 'Player X' in India in March 2008. The Daily Telegraph reported McCullum gave his first sworn statement in 2011, and another in 2013. But that didn't mean he waited three years to report it. NZ Cricket boss David White said there was a "small delay" in McCullum reporting the alleged approach. ICC chief executive Dave Richardson emphasised there were no concerns with McCullum's conduct.