Brendon McCullum slams ICC over handling of match-fixing accusations

New Delhi: Brendon McCullum while delivering the Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket lecture at Lord's on Monday, has criticised the approach of the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

The former New Zealand captain was a subject of high profile investigation pertaining to the match-fixing case involving former team-mate Chris Cairns. McCullum gave evidence that Cairns approached him twice in 2008 about manipulating matches.

After a nine-week trial, Cairns was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice from a high-profile libel case involving former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi.

But Cairns' defence team stated that McCullum only reported these approaches three years later and said there were changes to his explanations in two statements given to the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit in 2011 and 2013, as well as one to the Metropolitan police in 2014.

In the 'Spirit of Cricket' lecture, McCullum told the Lord's audience he stood by his evidence and criticised "a very casual approach to gathering evidence" by ICC investigator John Rhodes when taking down his initial statement.

"I think players deserve better from the ICC and that, in the future, the evidence-gathering exercise has to be much more thorough, more professional," McCullum said.