Brendon McCullum (left) arrives at Southwark Crown Court to give evidence in the Chris Cairns perjury trial.

Brendon McCullum has told a London court Chris Cairns said he was the type of player perfect for spot-fixing cricket matches, as the likes of Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram "wouldn't have the balls".

Giving evidence in the Cairns perjury trial on Thursday (Friday NZ Time), McCullum got a dolly of a question first up in Southwark Crown Court.

"Are you currently the New Zealand cricket captain?" Crown prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC, asked him.

MARK TANTRUM/GETTY IMAGES Brendon McCullum gave evidence for the prosecution in former team-mate Chris Cairns' perjury trial in London.

"Yes," McCullum replied.

Questions turned to a 2008 meeting in Kolkata, India, where McCullum alleged the former all-rounder - who he labelled a legend, icon, superstar and "one of my idols" - had approached him to spot-fix.

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Cairns sent a car to his hotel, saying he wished to discuss a "business proposition", McCullum said.

"I waited for Chris to bring it up, I was expecting something legitimate. He asked if I knew anything about spot-fixing in cricket."

When McCullum said no, Cairns produced a pen and paper and explained the principles which McCullum summed up as to "under-perform" in brackets of overs, by batting poorly.

"I was the sort of player and the sort of personality to take it on," he said Cairns told him.

Cairns scoffed that Vettori and Oram "wouldn't have the balls to take it on". He told McCullum that Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey were working with him at the Chandigarh Lions, in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League.

McCullum was a wicketkeeper and opening bat with the Kolkata Knight Riders, in the Indian Premier League.

Cairns also made a second spot-fixing approach, McCullum told the jury, this time in Worcester, England in June 2008.

MCCULLUM SLOW TO COME FORWARD

Under cross-examination, McCullum was asked why it took him until February 2011 to report Cairns to the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, when players are obliged to do so immediately.

"It's really difficult to explain. In hindsight, I should have," McCullum said.

"It still doesn't change the fact that he asked me to match-fix on two occasions."

McCullum, a Kiwi folk hero, is the second witness to appear in the case, with now-banned match-fixer Lou Vincent having finished his stint in the witness stand on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time).

Like Vincent, McCullum once saw Cairns as his "idol". Cairns said he could make between US$70,000 (NZ$105,000) and US$200,000 (NZ$300,000) a game for fixing.

"I was pretty shocked, I wish I had said no straight away, but I couldn't comprehend that Chris would put me in that position."

McCullum - who was on a US$700,000 (NZ$1.05m) IPL contract - did not immediately reject the first approach, but did so when Cairns later phoned him.

Cairns also explained how to get the money back to New Zealand without questions being asked, McCullum said. The idea was to buy an apartment in Dubai, keep it for two years, then sell it.

McCullum told other players about it at the time, even though he did not lodge a formal complaint until more than two years later.

Defence lawyer Orlando Pownall, QC, suggested that his memory had improved over time, and the hotel incident was "really nothing, but it has become something in your mind it should never have become".

McCullum said he was not mistaken, and that there was a spot-fixing approach.

He had left the hotel room with mixed emotions.

"It's a hard emotion to explain, you kind of feel it was a daring adventure as well."

He had felt pleased to be asked, he said.

'BRAND MCCULLUM'

Pownall portrayed McCullum in court as a successful businessman and sportsman, with a reputation to protect.

He listed his various business interests, and his business partners - among them former Black Caps Kyle Mills and Stephen Fleming.

They were out to protect what Pownall called "Brand McCullum" at the expense of Cairns, he said.

Coming forward to report Cairns to John Rhodes of the anti-corruption unit was part of that, he suggested.

He asked McCullum why he had attended charity events organised by Cairns since 2008, and played golf with him, if he was so shocked and disgusted by the spot fixing approach.

"You should have been incandescent with rage," Pownall said.

"At worst, you weren't certain there was an approach."

McCullum stood his ground.

"I'm very certain about the occasions I was asked to spot-fix," he said.

Pownall read an anti-corruption unit email saying McCullum had asked that no-one at his home board (New Zealand Cricket) be told what was said in his report. Nor was McCullum sanctioned for delaying coming forward for so long, when the minimum penalty is one year's international suspension.

"I have been told the ICC anti-corruption unit are comfortable with the way things have played out," McCullum said.

MCCULLUM STATEMENT INCONSISTENCIES

Pownall highlighted inconsistencies in official statements McCullum made since February 2011 - two to the anti-corruption unit, the third to the police.

He pointed out the names of Vincent and Tuffey never appeared until the third version, in February 2014 to the police.

McCullum had played international cricket in the same Black Caps team as Tuffey in 2009, under the captaincy of Daniel Vettori, without speaking out, he said.

"I wasn't a selector at the time, sir," McCullum said.

"I don't believe he was fixing matches when he was playing for us."

He didn't speak to Tuffey, he did nothing about him at all, Pownall said.

Through it all McCullum remained firm on his central theme; that Cairns had twice approached him to spot-fix matches.

"I am certain it was an approach," he said.

Talk about brackets of overs and scoring rates convinced him of that.

"I would be able to fix the first six overs of that [in a Twenty20 game], it was a clear approach to spot-fix."

He told the court it wasn't easy to report Cairns, "but I knew I had to".

Nor had it been easy to give evidence against his old friend.

Cairns, 45, is accused of lying under oath when he said he'd "never" cheated at cricket.

Vincent told the London court that Cairns was the person who initially got him into fixing, in the unsanctioned ICL in 2008.

Cairns instructed him to under perform in select matches, scoring 10 to 15 runs in 20 balls, then getting out.