Cairns perjury trial set for October 2015
The perjury trial of former New Zealand captain Chris Cairns will be delayed for 12 months because key witnesses are only available during down time in the international cricket calendar.
Cairns won STG90,000 ($A164,000) in damages in 2012 when he sued Indian Premier League founder Lalit Modi over a tweet that accused the Kiwi of match-fixing.
But police now allege the 44-year-old made a statement during that libel trial that he knew to be false when he declared he'd "never ever cheated at cricket".
At a preliminary hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, a four-week trial was scheduled to begin on October 5, 2015.
Cairns appeared in court alongside his barrister from the 2012 defamation trial, Andrew Fitch-Holland, who is charged with one count of perverting the course of justice.
The lawyer is accused of asking disgraced New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent to provide a false witness statement in connection with the libel action between Cairns and Modi.
Prosecutor Esther Schutzer-Weissmann on Thursday asked Judge Alistair McCreath for an October trial date because "it's a down time at both an international and county level ... in terms of the witnesses concerned.
"They (the potential witnesses) are committed to international tournaments all over the world," the barrister told the court.
Justice McCreath subsequently referred to October as a "cricket desert".
The team prosecuting Cairns and Fitch-Holland will be the same as that which prosecuted Rolf Harris earlier this year also at Southwark Crown Court.
Ms Schutzer-Weissmann will be led by Sasha Wass QC.
Cairns and Fitch-Holland, 49, both wore blue suits and ties on Thursday. They only spoke from the glass-walled dock to confirm their names.
The pair will next appear in court in mid-January for a plea and case management hearing.
While they are yet to formally enter pleas their lawyers indicated at a magistrates' court hearing earlier this month that both men would be "fully contesting the charges".
Cairns and Fitch-Holland were again released on unconditional bail.
