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Chris Cairns, the former “golden boy” of New Zealand cricket who stands accused of lying under oath to win a £1.4million libel settlement, was described as believing he was “untouchable” as the prosecution laid out its case in his trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.Cairns, whom prosecutor Sasha Wass QC described as a “legend” of the game, appeared in the dock to answer charges of perjury and, in conjunction with his co-defendant and former attorney Andrew Fitch-Holland, perverting the course of justice. Both men deny the charges, which relate to Cairns’ 2012 libel action against Lalit Modi, the former commissioner of the Indian Premier League.Cairns successfully sued Modi at the High Court in London following a Twitter message in 2010 in which Modi had alleged that Cairns had been excluded from that year’s IPL auction list “due to his past record of match fixing” in the now-defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL).”The prosecution case against Mr Cairns is that he manipulated the legal system in this country to his advantage,” said Wass. “Chris Cairns knew he had been guilty of match-fixing, he knew why he had been suspended and he knew what Mr Modi tweeted about him was true.”But Mr Cairns was an arrogant individual and very sure of the power he held over the people around him. This is what he did: he lied in witness statements, he lied on oath and he arranged that others should give false evidence on his behalf.”After all, the only people who knew for certain that Mr Cairns was engaged in match fixing were those people who had been match fixing with him. Why would they want to give evidence to that effect in court?”So Mr Cairns had a free rein: he could protest his good name and spotless reputation to the rooftops, knowing or believing that he was untouchable.”The prosecution allege that Lou Vincent, the former New Zealand batsman who was a team-mate of Cairns’ at Chandigarh Lions in the ICL, was persuaded by Fitch-Holland to provide a false witness statement to support Cairns’ libel case. Vincent was last year handed a life ban by the ECB after admitting to taking money to under-perform.During a Skype call, played to the court, Fitch-Holland told Vincent: “If you can literally get a one-paragraph statement that says ‘I played in the game, everything seemed okay, end of … it makes it plain that things are a lot more straightforward than they look.”In the recording, Fitch-Holland appeared to accept that both he and Vincent knew the cheating had happened, saying: “… between you and I, we all know some of what is being said is clearly true”. However, he tried to reassure Vincent that he would never have to swear his statement was true in court.Vincent, however, expressed his concerns: “It’s a big ask from me to … in a legal document say something that isn’t true”, he said, adding: “I am not proud of what has happened at all … it’s hard for me to live with what’s gone on.”Wass said the conversation was proof that all parties knew the libel case that Cairns was bringing was untrue.The case continues at 10am on Monday.

Newcastle United could offer Miguel Almiron to Villarreal as part of a deal for Arnaut Danjuma, according to The Sunday Mirror. 

The lowdown

Eddie Howe was in charge at Bournemouth when the Cherries paid Club Brugge £14.8million to sign Danjuma in 2019.

Amid injury problems, he made only 14 Premier League appearances (six starts) in his first season on the south coast.

Howe subsequently resigned, but Danjuma exploded into life in the Championship, scoring 17 goals and providing eight assists in 2020/21.

That earned him a move back to the top level with Villarreal, for whom he’s made 28 appearances this season.

The latest

Howe has already been reunited with Callum Wilson, Matt Ritchie and Ryan Fraser on Tyneside and, in addition to Danjuma, he’s also said to be keen on bringing Lloyd Kelly to St James’ Park.

Reliable reports on the south coast say Kelly will be the subject of a summer bid from the Magpies, with scouts allegedly attending all his games, and it appears he’s not the only former Howe student catching the eye.

The latest reports (via The Boot Room) state that Newcastle have identified Danjuma as a target ahead of the summer transfer window.

Almiron is one of the players the club are willing to sell this summer, and they could attempt a part-exchange with The Yellow Submarine.

The verdict

What would this deal look like? Well, there’s about a £30million difference in the two players’ Transfermarkt valuations (Danjuma £45million, Almiron £14.4million) and so, assuming Villarreal are interested in the Paraguayan, there may still need to be a negotiation over the fee.

It’s easy to understand why Newcastle are keen on Danjuma though, his team’s top scorer this season with 13 goals in all competitions.

Five of those goals have come in the Champions League, and the Dutchman is currently preparing for a quarterfinal meeting with Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

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Villarreal vice-president Jose Manuel Llaneza has dubbed him a ‘Rolex player’, while talent scout Jacek Kulig considers him ‘one of Europe’s best dribblers’.

It’s certainly a signing, then, that the Toon could get excited about.

In other news, Keith Downie shares an update on Shelvey.

Scorecard

Prasanna Jayawardene steered the Sri Lankans’ innings with an unbeaten 58 © Getty Images

Sri Lanka’s batsmen missed a crucial opportunity to adjust to the Queensland conditions ahead of next week’s Test and were knocked down on the first day of the tour game by Ashley Noffke. The tourists received an early taste of what the Gabba would be like next week and their top order failed to cope with the tricky bounce and early movement from an attack led by Noffke’s 5 for 36 and supported by Mitchell Johnson, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz.However, there was encouragement with the performance of the bowlers as they reduced Queensland to 4 for 60 when bad light stopped play 5.4 overs early. Lasith Malinga was a difficult prospect under dark clouds and he captured Jimmy Maher and Chris Simpson while Farveez Maharoof removed Ryan Broad and Andrew Symonds. Symonds’ Test warm-up ended on 22, an innings which included three consecutive boundaries off Malinga and finished with an edge to Prasanna Jayawardene.Jayawardene, the batsman-wicketkeeper who will play in Brisbane after Kumar Sangakkara’s hamstring injury, and Marvan Atapattu were the only members of the top seven who made an impression as the Sri Lankans reached 9 for 210 before declaring to allow their bowlers an opportunity in the sultry conditions. It was a worrying performance and the batsmen have only one more innings to fine tune for the first Test.Sanath Jayasuriya (0), Michael Vandort (4) and Mahela Jayawardene fell in the morning to Noffke and Chamara Silva (0) was run-out chasing an unnecessary second. While Jayasuriya dusted off with a century in the previous match in Adelaide, Jayawardene has looked unconvincing since arriving in Australia and picked up a second zero.Jayawardene lasted only six balls before Noffke had him lbw playing from the crease, which left the Sri Lankans at 3 for 14 after Jayasuriya pushed to gully and Vandort edged to first slip. Noffke was particularly impressive in his first spell, taking 3 for 7 off 11 overs, and he kick-started the opening session, which finished when Atapattu was out cutting on 48, leaving the Sri Lankans at 6 for 81.”It was a bit of hard work in the morning,” Atapattu said. “We were taken by surprise more than anything by the sideways movement. We expected the wicket to be harder and bouncier. But you shouldn’t have any doubts about our talent and ability going into a Test.”Noffke was again heavily involved after lunch, collecting Maharoof and Chaminda Vaas, who fell to a sharp caught-and-bowled, and he took his third five-wicket haul of a fine season to justify his elevation to the new ball ahead of Bichel and Kasprowicz. “It’s never been done before and it’s strange,” he said.”They’re two guys who I’ve learnt a lot from in the past, standing at mid-off and watching them. It’s a good learning experience and it’s just the evolution of cricket, we’re all going to retire or step down and let the younger guy through.”Fortunately for the Sri Lankans, Prasanna Jayawardene was able to push them towards respectability with the help of Maharoof (20) and Malinga Bandara, who struck eight fours and a six off Daniel Doran’s legspin in his 43. Jayawardene’s responsibilities have increased with Sangakkara’s injury and he showed his capabilities during his half-century. Like Atapattu, Jayawardene cut well and hit nine boundaries in his unbeaten 58, which came from 130 balls.

Ian Butler: forced to chuck the idea of pain-killers © Getty Images

Ian Butler, the New Zealand fast bowler, has been reduced to relying on medical advances in an attempt to revive his international career. Butler, 24, has suffered from a bulging disc in his lower back for the past 22 months and with surgery not an option, he has to wait for the discovery of a new treatment for the problem.Butler planned on having pain-killing injections in order to represent Northern Districts, but consultation with his coaching staff scrapped that idea. “There was no point having injections to mask the pain,” he told stuff.co.nz. “I didn’t want to risk it for later in life. It was worth it to wait. If something happens and medical procedures improve, I could be back again.”A nerve being damaged by compression added to Butler’s troubles, and while the bulging disc can be managed, he admitted life was tough. “Then daily life becomes hard. Even getting out of bed is hard,” he said. “I’m not throwing away all hope of bowling but I’ve just got to be sensible about it. I was almost kidding myself that it [the injections] was going to be of any benefit.”After being picked as a batsman in a Twenty20 tournament last weekend, Butler decided to try bowling slower. “I was just trying to cover other bowlers,” he said. “I was bowling very, very slow, it could almost be described as spin. James [Marshall] just asked me if I could do a job bowling with the keeper standing up.”Butler’s last Test and one-day international appearances were in late 2004.

Andy Bichel will be in action this week after resting against the West Indians © Getty Images

Andy Bichel is set to return to the Queensland starting line-up for their ING Cup-Pura Cup double against South Australia in Adelaide this week. Bichel was 12th man for the tour match against the West Indians after the Queensland selectors opted to rest him, but he was named in both squads today.Three changes were made to the team that drew against the West Indians, with Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson on Test duty and the legspinner Ryan Le Loux overlooked. Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson and the allrounder Lachlan Stevens were picked in the Pura Cup squad for the match starting on Sunday.Nathan Reardon, the 20-year-old allrounder, was chosen for his second one-day game after he made his debut for the Bulls as a Super Sub in the opening loss to NSW at the Gabba two weeks ago. Queensland play South Australia in a day-night ING Cup match on Friday.Queensland ING Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), James Hopes, Andrew Symonds, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Andy Bichel, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Kasprowicz, Chris Simpson.Queensland Pura Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Clinton Perren, Martin Love, Andrew Symonds, Craig Philipson, James Hopes, Chris Hartley (wk), Chris Simpson, Andy Bichel, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Kasprowicz, Lachlan Stevens.

There may be many bowlers criticising ICC’s new rule, but these two have backed it without hesitation© AFP

Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie have come out in favour of ICC’s new rule regarding bowling actions. After comprehensive testing, the ICC recommended that bowlers could straighten their arm up to 15 degrees and both supported having a common limit for all variety of bowlers.”I think it’s a great thing,” Gillespie told the . “It’s one universal law, rather than having different degrees of flexation, which I think is near impossible to police.”McGrath was also in favour of standardising the testing procedure and said, “At least you’ve got a benchmark. I know they go into the lab afterwards, which, to me, is nothing like a match situation. You can do whatever you want and change your action. But when you’re out in the middle, if they can have a standard testing procedure … I’m all for it.”When I found out that the testing could be done in match situations with high-speed cameras, and a few of us had already been tested, I started thinking it was a good idea. It already shows that people like myself and Shaun Pollock who people say have pretty sound actions, that we have a bit of a flex of 10-12 degrees.”Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, said it was important that the players could see the evidence and “knee-jerk reactions” were avoided. “It shouldn’t be secretive and names [of suspected bowlers] shouldn’t be put up without basis,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotion around chucking and I’m very conservative on this topic.”Fleming was due to meet today with Tim May, a member of the ICC’s cricket committee which endorsed the recommendations, while May spoke to Ricky Ponting yesterday. “I think it’s a bit clearer now,” Ponting said. “It’s good to hear it from Tim but we still need to know a bit more about it.”

The four clubs chasing the Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 bounty should all cash in with big wins tomorrow.Unbeaten leaders Alton chase a ninth successive win against South Wilts II at Lower Bemerton, while second placed Ventnor should be too strong for Hook & Newnham Basics, even though Andy Whyte is missing.Trojans, whose one-run defeat by Winchester KS last week was an untimely blow, will fancy their chances at Leckford and Rowledge ought to be too strong for Waterlooville.Flamingo will remain anchored to the basement unless they win at Southsea, but Hambledon will do well to get anything from their visit to New Milton, even though Lee Miller is injured.

The national league continued and the weekend was not a happy one for Bulawayo as far as the results show.Macdonald Club visited Harare and went down to the ever-improving Takashinga team (formerly Winstonians) by 63 runs. Chasing 235, Mac Club could muster only 172 as their poor season form continues. National team player Tatenda Taibu scored a fluent 82 off 84 balls and certainly stood out as the player of the day.Former champions Old Hararians recorded their second win of the season when they beat Bulawayo Sports Club by four wickets. Former Academy player Clement Mahachi showed his batting capabilities at last with a well compiled century, hopefully a glimpse of what is to come as the season progresses.In the other local derby, and many of Bulawayo’s former players will remember it as such, Queens, who have not won a game this season, lost to BAC. Batting first, Queens scored 232 all out with young Strydom 59 and Townshend 42 the main contributors, while BAC reached their target losing only six wickets, their main scorers – and both national hockey players -being veteran `Porgie’ Williams and young Mike Mckillop with 71 and 58 respectively. It is hoped that Mckillop will be available this season as he will not have the hockey commitments he had last year. This fine young sportsman, from whom many youngsters would benefit if they tried to emulate his attitude towards sport, would strengthen the provincial side for the Logan Cup.Over the weekend, the selectors will be naming the teams to play in a two-day game to get down to naming the squad for Logan Cup in February next year. One player who will be missing, as he was last season, will be Henry Olonga, who has opted to play for the Harare side Takashinga and will no longer be eligible to play for Matabeleland.The Matabeleland pace attack is likely therefore to be built aroundStreak, Nkala, Mbangwa, Townshend and Mahachi. Gavin Wren, a former Under-19 player, is showing an interest in cricket again and could well force his way into contention.

ScorecardChris Dent recorded the highest score by a Gloucesteshire player since World War II•PA Photos

Chris Dent’s superb career-best 268 put Gloucestershire in the ascendancy against old foes Glamorgan on the third day of their Championship match at Bristol.Gloucestershire’s formidable total of 558, founded upon a record-breaking stand of 166 between Dent and James Fuller, helped the home side establish a meaningful first-innings lead of 125. But a draw appears the most likely outcome after Glamorgan openers Jacques Rudolph and James Kettleborough overcame fatigue to negotiate 27 overs and reach the close on 88 without loss.Rudolph’s chanceless innings of 56 not out has occupied 87 balls and the captain will seek to steer his side, who trail by 37, to safety on the final day.On a day when the records tumbled, Dent posted the highest individual score by any Gloucestershire batsman in matches against Glamorgan since World War II, eclipsing the 254 made by Andrew Symonds at Abergavenny in 1995.His run-laden alliance with Fuller, who registered a career-best 73 from 99 balls, represented a club record stand for the eighth wicket in matches against Glamorgan, surpassing the 128 mustered by Mark Hardinges and Ashley Noffke at Bristol in 2007.And Dent comfortably bettered his previous highest first-class score of 203 not out, made against Cardiff MCCU in 2014, in the process becoming the only Gloucestershire player to pass 1000 first-class runs this season.Dropped by Colin Ingram in the slips before he had scored, Fuller made good his escape to eclipse his previous highest score of 57, made against Leicestershire at Cheltenham in 2012.With the exception of a couple of early setbacks, Benny Howell shouldering arms and losing his off stump to Michael Hogan without adding to his overnight score of 40 and Kieran Noema-Barnett chipping Craig Meschede straight to point for 5, it was pretty much plain sailing for the home side.Dent and Jack Taylor, who raised 35 from 33 balls and struck seven fours before top-edging a catch behind off Dewi Penrhyn-Jones, redressed the balance in an entertaining stand of 53 for the sixth wicket.With Gloucestershire opting to apply scoreboard pressure rather than pursue a contrived finish, Dent was presented with a chance to post a maiden Championship double hundred. In no mood to pass up such an opportunity, the Bristolian clipped Penrhyn-Jones to backward point and scampered a quick single to reach the mark in the 98th over. When he guided Graham Wagg to the fine leg boundary in the next over, the left-hander entered hitherto uncharted territory and County Ground regulars rose to acknowledge his achievement.Fuller must have had one eye on a maiden hundred when he advanced down the track to Andrew Salter and attempted to clear the long-on boundary, only to find Penrhyn-Jones, who took a fine catch just inside the rope.David Payne was bowled by Salter shortly after tea and Dent, having batted for eight hours, faced 347 balls and accrued 34 fours and 2 sixes, was last man out, superbly held by Wagg on the deep midwicket boundary off the bowling of Meschede. It proved tough going for Glamorgan’s seamers and Australian Hogan was the only bowler to emerge with credit, returning figures of 3-83.

The MCC president, Ted Dexter, has gone on record as saying that Nasser Hussain, the England captain, might have kept to the letter of the law when he told left-arm spinner Ashley Giles to bowl over the wicket into the leg-side rough against Sachin Tendulkar in the Test series against India, but he was outside the spirit of the law.Now, Dexter believes that there needs to be a revision of the laws by MCC, and he is supported in that by the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council. The ICC has been in touch suggesting that MCC might look at ways of closing this particular loophole that allows negative tactics to be employed.The tactics employed by Hussain attracted widespread condemnation, especially in India where Sunil Gavaskar, one of the country’s greatest batsmen and now both a media personality and chairman of the ICC cricket committee, tagged England as “boring.”Dexter, who was himself an innovative captain of England, said that leg-side bowling represented “a matter of pushing the laws to their limit to gain advantage.”He continued: “The umpires could have been stricter on the leg-side wide, and what we detected was an anomaly in the ICC playing conditions – just one sentence – which allowed the umpires not to intervene.”Since then we’ve been in touch with ICC – I’ve been in touch personally withSunil Gavaskar – and we’ve corresponded.”We’re thrilled that the ICC has asked the MCC for our proposals as to how todeal with it properly in the laws and the playing conditions, and we’ll seewhere we go from here.”Some critics suggested that the tactic had actually cost England the chance of squaring the series in the final Test in Bangalore. Tendulkar faced 198 balls for 90 before Giles had him stumped, but time was on India’s side even before rain came to wash out any chance of a positive result.Nevertheless, Hussain’s plan was designed specifically to counter Tendulkar in the prevailing conditions and, if the fault lay with the ICC playing conditions as Dexter maintains, it seems strange that the laws of cricket should be amended rather than the faulty playing conditions.