Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns arrives at the Southwark Crown Court in London.

Five New Zealand cricket captains and former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting are on the witness list for the London perjury trial of Chris Cairns, who himself led the Black Caps.

When the trial started at Southwark Crown Court on Monday night (NZ time), the list of those to give evidence read out in court resembled a who's who of international cricket.

It contained the names of Stephen Fleming, John Parker, Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori, all former New Zealand captains, and current skipper Brendon McCullum.

GETTY IMAGES Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns arrives at The City of Westminster Magistrates Court in October last year after being charged with perjury.

Cairns, 45, is facing a serious criminal charge, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years' jail. He has denied the charge.

It is alleged he misled the court in the 2012 British libel proceedings against Indian businessman Lalit Modi, making a statement under oath he "knew to be false or did not believe to be true".

Under question is his statement he "never, ever cheated at cricket" and nor would he "contemplate doing such a thing".

A jury panel of 16 was chosen, comprising 10 women and six men. With about 50 witnesses, the trial could continue until November 20 "in a worst case scenario".

Legal arguments on admissible evidence will continue until the court next sits, at 2am Thursday (New Zealand time).

The panel will then be sworn as a 12-person jury and the prosecution will outline its case.

Witnesses are due to start giving evidence on Monday, with disgraced former Black Cap Lou Vincent, his former wife Elly Riley, and McCullum likely to be among the openers.

The defence will call Cairns' wife Mel Cairns, former England cricketer Mal Loye, International Cricket Council (ICC) academy manager Marc Archer, and potentially Parker, Fleming and Mark Greatbatch, another former Black Cap.

Also called for the defence are Australian international Stuart Law, his wife Deb Law, ex Zimbabwe international Murray Goodwin and former Australia batsman Matthew Elliott.

Kiwis Shane Bond, Andre Adams, Chris Harris and Mills, Australian Ponting and South Africa all-rounder Andrew Hall were also named in court as trial witnesses.

Many of them were involved in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) alongside Cairns, who captained Chandigarh Lions in which Vincent was a team-mate.

Evidence will also be given by umpire Steve Davis, New Zealand players' agent Leanne McGoldrick, ICC anti-corruption and security unit head Sir Ronnie Flanagan and his former colleague Ravi Sawani, New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White, and potentially McCullum's former mental skills coach Kerry Schwalger.

Cairns is being defended by Orlando Pownall QC. The prosecutor is Sasha Wass, who led the crown case against Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, 85, in the same court room last year.

Mr Justice Sweeney is judge. He presided over the Harris case.

Cairns arrived at court alone at 8.45am UK time wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and dark blue tie.

He stood in the dock alongside fellow accused Andrew Fitch-Holland and spoke only to confirm his name.

Fitch-Holland was Cairns' legal adviser before the 2012 libel trial.

Fitch-Holland and Cairns are also both charged with asking Vincent to provide a false witness statement in support of Cairns.

Vincent was last year banned from cricket for life, after admitting he was involved in match-fixing.

Those with links to professional cricketers or top-level cricketing organisations, and current or former police officers, were excluded from the jury.

At the peak of his powers in the early 2000s, Cairns was rated the world's best all-rounder.