Published: Jan 16, 2016, 02:57 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 16, 2016, 03:00 AM (IST)
Cairns: Billionaire Indian Lalit Modi has dropped his multimillion-dollar law suit against Chris Cairns in the latest twist in the long-running match-fixing related saga, it was reported Saturday. Modi was seeking to recoup £1.5 million pounds (US$2.13 million) in costs from a libel suit he lost when former New Zealand star Cairns successfully argued he had been defamed by the Indian cricket entrepreneur.However, the Weekend Herald, said Modi had now “given up trying to claw back costs”.
Cairns, who no longer lives in New Zealand, declined to comment “but his UK solicitor Rhory Robertson confirmed a Notice of Discontinuance had been filed by Modi to halt proceedings”, the newspaper said. The five-year legal battle began in January 2010 when Modi alleged in a tweet that Cairns had been involved in match-fixing. Cairns won the libel case in 2012 and in an eight-week trial last year he was also found not guilty of perjuring himself in the defamation hearing.
Modi launched his lawsuit based on evidence in the perjury case when New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and former Test batsman Lou Vincent claimed they had been approached by Cairns to fix matches. Earlier, former New Zealand cricket star Chris Cairns,45, was cleared of perjury charges over match-fixing, demanded answers from Brendon McCullum who testified against him. Cairns said years of litigation had left him penniless but he would continue to fight to clear his name, amid reports he would soon face a multi-million dollar fraud claim from Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL). “Beat up, yes. Exhausted, yes. Penniless, yes. Will I continue to fight, absolutely,” the 45-year-old Cairns said in a column for Fairfax New Zealand. The former all-rounder questioned why McCullum did not come forward before his 2012 libel trial when he successfully sued Modi who tweeted that Cairns was linked to match-fixing.
