After growing pressure to concede that he was aware of – and potentially involved in – match fixing that occurred within the New Zealand Black Caps on their 2008 tour of England, cricketing great Chris Cairns has today admitted he was aware of the practice, but didn’t find his team being paid to lose to be “anything out of the ordinary.”

In a statement released this morning, Cairns maintained that he was never personally approached about fixing matches, but was aware that others – including batsman Lou Vincent – were.

Cairns says he didn’t raise the alarm about the match-fixing, because as a Black Cap, he thought getting paid to lose was “just what we do.”

“I understand that Lou was approached,” he said. “We all understood that Lou had been approached, and that the deal, so to speak, was, you know, you maybe miss that ball, maybe allow them that wicket, and you’ll get some money.

“So I suppose you could say, he was being paid to lose. But I’ve been paid to lose; the only difference is I was being paid by the team.

“There’s nothing unusual about that. For fifteen years, they paid me – and every other Black Cap on the payroll – to lose, over and over, again and again.”

He argued that while it might seem “strange and immoral to some,” being paid to lose test matches abroad was merely a part of the New Zealand cricket experience.

“For years, that’s how we ran things, and as far as I can tell, that’s how they run things today. The Black Caps, are, essentially, an organization that pays players to travel overseas, promote the sport, promote New Zealand, and lose.”

Head of the International Cricket Council David Richardson – who is overseeing the organization’s investigation into match fixing charges – responded to Cairns’ statement this afternoon, saying that the council would take his views “into account.”

Asked if they had any merit, Richardson acknowledged that it did “seem hard to believe” that the Black Caps had been genuinely trying to win at any point in the last decade.