Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns has been found not guilty of perjury and has been acquitted of perverting the course of justice.
The 12-person jury, who were sent home over the weekend after failing to reach a verdict, finalised their 10-hour deliberations at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday.
The 45-year-old was accused of lying under oath when he told a court that he had never cheated in a cricket match and would never consider doing so, during a libel case against former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi.
Cairns, who took legal action after Modi tweeted in 2010 that the cricketer was removed from an IPL auction list due to his "past record of match-fixing" in the Indian Cricket League, won the case and was awarded £90,000 in damages as part of a £1.4m settlement.
The retired cricketer and co-defendant Andrew Fitch-Holland were also charged with perverting the course of justice by allegedly claiming a witness statement from Lou Vincent, who has admitted to match-fixing in the past, during the libel case against Modi.
Over 30 witnesses were used in the nine-week trial, one of which was current Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum, who told the court that Cairns had approached him three times about match-fixing.
To find Cairns guilty, the jury, made up of seven women and five men, needed to believe that the ex-cricketer had fixed matches during his career, but on Monday morning, they declared the accused a free man.
Danielle Joynson
