'Completely vindicated' Cairns ready for cricket comeback after two- year libel trial

Wellington, Apr 5: Former Kiwi cricketer Chris Cairns has said he feels "complete vindication" and added that he is ready to resume playing cricket and lead a normal life in Canberra, after a two-year battle to clear his reputation of match-fixing accusations.

Cairns stressed he was ''''never going to back down'''' against former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi in the world''s first libel case.

Cairns detailed how the case had consumed his life and ostracised him from the cricket community, and pointed out there were irregularities in the now-defunct Indian Cricket League though he was never aware of them at that time.

He admitted the libel case had been a major impost on his life, and added he had to fight hard to restore his tarnished reputation, as according to him, match fixing were some of the ''''dirtiest words in sport''''.

''''I took it as far as I could go to clear my name and that''s what I had to do.It was a long hard road to get that complete vindication. An hour won''t go past when you''re not thinking about it ... it''s a massive distraction and something that didn''t need to be in my life but I had to deal with it,” stuff.co. nz quoted Cairns, as saying.

''''It''ll take a good while to get out of the system and realise it''s not part of my life and I''ll have more time for all things family and professionally,'''' he added.

Cairns said the toughest phase of the two-year legal fight was facing a London High Court trial and listening to what he described a ''''character assassination'''' against him.

Cairns’ statement came after he was awarded costs and 90,000 pounds by the High Court of London in a libel case.

Cairns had sued former Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi for his 2010 tweet that alleged his role in the match-fixing in the now- defunct Indian Cricket League.