Chris Cairns the New Zealand cricket great facing the biggest battle of his life is still rightly regarded as one of the sports foremost all-rounders.
The 51-year-old, who is a Sydney hospital in a serious but stable condition after cardiac surgery for an aortic dissection in his heart was a household name in New Zealand sport during a 17-year international career from 1989 to 2006.
Chris Cairns, in the prime of his Black Caps bowling career, in 2001.
A precocious talent, who could bowl fast and bat briskly, Cairns was, at his peak, the closest the Black Caps had come to the all-round talents of Sir Richard Hadlee.
Heres why:
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International
Made his test debut at 19 in November 1989 against Australia just four years after his dad, Lances last international.
His one-day international bow against England in February 1991.
He took more than 200 test wickets and hit more than 3000 runs, in 62 tests.
Cairns was Wisden player of the year in 2000 a rare world honour for a Kiwi with the respected publication hailing him as having “a claim to be considered the games pre-eminent all-rounder”.
Dressed in beige the colours worn in the 1980s by his famous father Lance Chris Cairns squares up before one of his last ODIs, against the West Indies, in 2006.
He was also three times awarded player of the year by the New Zealand Cricket Almanack.
A power hitter like his father, Cairns once held the world record for most sixes in tests (87), at a rate of nearly 1.5 per test.
He is still New Zealand’s seventh highest test cricket wicket taker, behind Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Chris Martin and Neil Wagner.
His final test came in June 2004 in England on his 34th birthday, and his last ODI appearance was against Sri Lanka in Napier in January 2006.
A month later, he brought the final curtain down at 35 with a farewell T20 international appearance against the West Indies in Auckland.
Cairns test career ended with 3320 test runs with a best of 158, 218 test wickets, 13 five wicket bags, and one 10-wicket haul.
In one-day internationals Cairns had 4950 runs with a top score of 115, and 201 wickets.
Blackcaps allrounder Chris Cairns with his mother Sue Wison at a 2006 press conference confirming his retirement from international cricket.
In 2000 he guided New Zealand to the International Cricket Council (ICC) one day international world title, with an outlandish century against India in Kenya.
Cairns clubbed 102 not out to win the game with just two balls left. It remained New Zealand’s only world cricket for 21 years until the Black Caps won the world test championship final against India in 2021
Cairns is on the honours board at Lord’s with his first innings six for 77 against England in 1999.
Injuries saw him miss 55 tests, but he sits in illustrious company, recording 1000 runs/100 wickets combination in tests, alongside greats Sir Garfield Sobers and Keith Miller and other stars including Imran Khan, Botham, and New Zealands Sir Richard Hadlee.
He captained New Zealand seven times and was only the sixth man to reach the double of 200 wickets and 3000 career runs.
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Chris Cairns celebrates a wicket with team mates Adam Parore (L) and Chris Harris against India in 1999.
County cricket
Cairns also played several seasons for Nottinghamshire on the English country cricket circuit after first going to Trent Bridge as a teenager on a scholarship scheme. He made his first-class cricket debut for Notts in the late 80s before his rookie New Zealand season with Northern Districts.
Cairn became Notts’ principal overseas player in 1992 and his batting average of 43 and bowling average of 23.42, made him the leading all-rounder on the county scene in 1993.
Charity work
Away from the crease, Cairns became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2005 while still playing international cricket.
Ex-New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns on a nationwide walk promoting rail safety in 2008.
In 2006, he founded and chaired the Chris Cairns Foundation, set up in memory of his sister, Louise Cairns, a passenger on the Southerner train, was killed in a crash with a truck at level crossing in Rolleston, near Christchurch in 1993.
Over seven years, Cairns made it his mission to raise funds and public awareness of the accident rate at level crossings.
In 2008, he set out on a charity walk from Cape Reinga to Bluff to promote the cause and he also promoted a ‘Tracks are for Trains’ campaign.
Rail safety campaigner and former international test cricket player, Chris Cairns speaks to the children at Taranakis Fitzroy Primary School about Rail Safety Week.
Later life
After retiring from the Black Caps, Cairns became an international cricket commentator.
He was successful in a libel action in 2012 when accused of match-fixing by wealthy Indian businessman Lalit Modi.
Cairns was also acquitted by a jury of all charges in Londons Southwark Crown Court in 2015, in which it was alleged he had lied under oath at the 2012 trial.
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Chris Cairns arrives at Southwark Crown Court for a 2015 trial in which he was cleared of charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
London’s famed Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) also paid Cairns substantial damages – believed to be a five-figure sum in British pounds – for wrongly linking him to match-fixing, in addition to making a public apology.
In two London court cases, Cairns was never proved guilty of match-fixing – where players attempt to manipulate a game, or part of it so that bets can be collected on the outcome.
Cairns, who always maintained his innocence, wrote a column for Stuff in December 2015 after his acquittal.
“When is not guilty, not guilty,? he wrote.
Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images
Chris Cairns fought for six years to cleer his name after court allegations.
“For six years now I have been in litigation. Beat up, yes. Exhausted, yes. Penniless, yes. Will I continue to fight, absolutely.
Cairns and his wife, Mel, relocated their family to Canberra several years ago.
He got back into the sports business arena in January 2019 as the chief executive of SmartSportz, a company specialising in virtual sport.