Chris Cairns wins libel case against Lalit Modi

Former New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns was awarded ufffd90000 142000 damages on Monday after winning a libel action in Londons High Court against Lalit Modi the former chairman of the Indian Premier League IPL over accusations of matchfixing In the first libel action heard in England against a post on Twitter Cairns 41 was awarded ufffd90000 damages after Judge David Bean dismissed fixing allegations levelled against the cricketer by Modi Meanwhile Modi was also ordered to pay an additional ufffd400000 on account of Cairnss costs to his solicitors within 28 days The figures do not include Modis own legal costsKiwi allrounder Chris Cairns has won the libel case against former IPL chief Lalit Modi PicGetty Images Bean granted Modi permission to appeal over the amount of damages but refused permission on the issue of liability although Modis lawyers are set to go to the Court of Appeal directly on that point Cairns sued over an unequivocal allegation of matchfixing on Modis Twitter account on the microblogging site in January 2010 Bean said Modi had singularly failed to provide any reliable evidence Cairns was involved in matchfixing or spotfixing Cairns not in court on Monday said in a statement Todays verdict lifts a dark cloud that has been over me for the past two years I feel mixed emotions Firstly sadness that I should ever have had to put myself my friends and my family through this because of one mans misdirected allegations But I also feel great joy because my past career has come through unscathed and remains intact and because I had the courage to stand up in the highest court to defend my name He added Lastly I feel great relief that I am able to walk into any cricket ground in the world with my head held highLailt Modi will have to pay ufffd90000 in damages to the Kiwi allrounder PicGetty Imagesu00a0u00a0u00a0Bean rejected claims by Modis lawyers that the case was an example of libel tourism as Cairns had been educated in England and had also played county cricket while Modi who did not give evidence during the eightday trial had been resident in England since mid2010 Bean also rejected a claim by Modis barrister Ronald Thwaites that Cairns had given incredible evidence Despite prolonged searching and occasionally intrusive questioning about his sporting financial and personal life he emerged essentially unscathed Bean said The judge said evidence given by cricketers Gaurav Gupta Rajesh Sharma and Tejinder Pal Singh was not to be believed and hearsay evidence from Amit Uniyal and Love Ablish was inconsistent and unreliable while that of Karanveer Singh fell well short of sustaining Modis caseModiu00a0had earlier claimed that the Kiwi allrounder was removed from IPLs auction list because of his alleged involvement in matchfixing According to Bean Modis lawyers had launched a sustained and aggressive attack on Cairns which must be taken to have been made on his instructions In Thwaitess closing speech to the court the words liar lie and lies were used 24 times To reflect that the judge increased the damages by about 20 percent ufffd75000 to ufffd90000 The court had heard that Modis tweet was picked up by leading cricket website Cricinfo But while they withdrew their report following a complaint by Cairns Modi refused to apologise and insisted the charge was true Cairns was adamant it was wholly untrue and claimed it could undo all he had achieved in a 20year career where despite being plagued by injuries he scored over 3000 runs and took more than 200 wickets in Test cricket The court was told that in 2007 and 2008 Cairns captained the Chandigarh Lions in three competitions in the Indian Cricket League ICL which flourished briefly before the rise of the IPL a lucrative domestic Twenty20 competition featuring many of the worlds leading players The allegation made by Modi related to the second and third of these competitions between March and April 2008 and October and November of that year But Cairnss barrister Andrew Caldecott told the court that in October 2008 his client was called to an ICL directors meeting at a hotel where according to the cricketer his denial of rumours of his alleged involvement in matchfixing appeared to be accepted