The Crown prosecutor in Chris Cairns' perjury trial has compared the cricketer to football superstar David Beckham.
Sasha Wass QC was questioning Cairns' co-accused Andrew Fitch-Holland about why he and Cairns found it so hard to get witnesses to support Cairns when he took legal action against Indian cricket boss Lalit Modi.
"We all know he was a hugely popular figure in cricket…he was the David Beckham of the cricketing world", she said.
But Fitch-Holland didn't agree saying, "I don't accept he's comparable with David Beckham".
Ms Wass retorted that they didn't need to fall out over David Beckham and they eventually agreed Cairns had enjoyed a very high reputation.
The Crown believes it was hard for Cairns to find support because he was involved in match-fixing but Fitch-Holland argues it was because Mr Modi was such a powerful figure in cricket that people, especially cricketers, did not want to speak out against him.
Ms Wass was particularly focussed on Fitch-Holland's attempt to convince former Black Cap Lou Vincent to give evidence on Cairns' behalf.
Fitch-Holland told the London jury, "he can't read Mr Vincent's devious little mind", when asked why Vincent was happy to meet him about the Modi libel trial but not meet Cairns' official lawyer working on the case.
Ms Wass suggested Vincent would only meet or speak with Fitch-Holland because he could talk more candidly to him about money and match-fixing.
Cairns' legal team was trying to get Vincent to make a statement in favour of Cairns ahead of the 2012 trial.
Vincent had agreed to meet Cairns' actual lawyer Rhory Robertson to discuss giving a statement but stood him up and said he would only meet with Fitch-Holland.
Fitch-Holland is charged with perverting the course of justice for trying to convince Vincent to give a false legal statement for Cairns.
The key evidence against him is a recording Vincent made of a Skype call between him and Fitch-Holland in which Fitch-Holland asks him to make a short statement saying he didn't see any wrongdoing during Indian Cricket League (ICL) matches.
During the call Fitch-Holland says, "between you and I .. we all know some of what's being said is clearly true".
Fitch-Holland maintains he was talking broadly about match-fixing within the ICL but Ms Wass suggests it was about, "having a little secret understanding with Mr Vincent and you".
She went to say that Fitch-Holland, "knew [Vincent] was part of Mr Cairns' match-fixing posse" and "that's why he was happy to speak to you .. because he could speak openly about match-fixing".
Ms Wass accused Fitch-Holland of lying and "dancing on the head of a pin", but he rejected her accusation that he spent a week concocting a convoluted explanation for what was said in the Skype call, trying to give "innocent meaning to guilty words".
3 News