The net is closing in on a world renowned former cricketer after a New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum revealed he had been approached to fix matches.
Sportsmail has learned that McCullum told ICC anti-corruption investigators a player offered him up to £107,000 to underperform.
It is thought to be the same player for whom former New Zealand Test batsman Lou Vincent admitted fixing matches in both county cricket and in the short-lived Indian Cricket League.
McCullum’s claim will send further shockwaves through the game, particularly in England as the batsman said his ‘hero’ tried to bribe him in a Worcester cafe during New Zealand’s tour in 2008.
The detail of McCullum’s evidence includes how the former star told him how to fix by batting slowly and to hide the money trail by buying property through an employee of the ICC, the world game’s governing body.
The star also told him that ‘the big boys’ in international cricket were doing it.
McCullum was first approached in 2008 in Kolkata before the start of the inaugural Indian Premier League. He told investigators that the star telephoned him to meet at his hotel to discuss a ‘business opportunity’.
‘We spent some time talking about various things over dinner,’ McCullum told investigators. ‘During the course of this conversation he asked me if I knew what spread betting was in cricket games. I told him not really, so he took a piece of paper and wrote down and explained the process to me.
‘I was really shocked as I saw X as a good friend and it totally confused me. X said that everybody was doing this in games.
‘He said that the “Big Boys” in international cricket were doing it and he didn’t want me to miss out. I am sure that he mentioned names to me but I cannot remember, although I seem to think that X mainly mentioned Asian cricketers. Using the piece of paper X explained the basic principles which were to score below a certain rate for the first six or so overs and then towards the end of the game there was another split. X told me he had done this himself.
‘[He] told me that potentially he could get for me from between $70,000-180,000 (£42-000-£107,000) a game.
‘X told me he had a good group working for him in the ICL and I understand this to mean fixing for him. It was my opinion then, as it is now, that X was actively concerned in fixing… I believed he was asking me to do the same thing for him in the IPL as others were doing in the ICL.’
McCullum asked the man how he was able to take money back to New Zealand without raising suspicion.
‘X told me that you don’t take or send it back to New Zealand. He explained that he had a man in Dubai who was associated with cricket. Through him you purchase a property in Dubai which you retain for a couple of years before selling it.
‘The money could then be moved wherever you want to send it because to all intents and purposes, it would appear to be profit from property deals rather than fixing. X told me the name of that man in Dubai.’
Despite McCullum saying he has ‘never, ever fixed’ he didn’t have the courage to say no immediately and instead said he would think about it before returning to his hotel in a ‘state of shock’. Later the star telephoned him and McCullum told him he was not interested.
‘He was a hero who became a friend so I always found it difficult to say no,’ McCullum said.
It was a matter of weeks before the superstar tried to coerce McCullum again. After his stint in the IPL, McCullum joined the New Zealand squad in England.
‘We were staying in Worcester and he called asking to catch up. He said he was just down the road and suggested we meet for breakfast. I thought it strange he was in the area. X asked if I’d changed my mind and I knew he was talking about fixing. I told him I had not.’
McCullum could be charged by the ICC for failure to report an approach to fix as it is a breach of the corruption code.
