Chris Rattue: This is not Cairns v McCullum

Brendon McCullum said all he needed to say. He didn't even need to say that much.

On the eve of the test against Sri Lanka in Dunedin, it was inevitable that he faced media questions on the Chris Cairns perjury trial, given it was his first public appearance since the not guilty verdict.

"I am very comfortable with the evidence I gave," McCullum told reporters, adding that he would not be speaking to the acquitted Cairns.

The New Zealand cricket captain was not on trial in a London Crown Court. He was a witness for the prosecution.

This is not a Cairns v McCullum duel, even if Cairns may have made it appear that way with his responses after the trial. It was Crown prosecutors - not Brendon McCullum - who believed they had enough evidence to go to trial.

McCullum is right. His reputation was not on the line and nothing in London changed that. He has emerged completely unscathed. Chris Cairns says his reputation is "scorched, burnt completely". This may not seem fair but it is reality.

That is a great problem with any justice system. There is no way that it can actually be just all of the time. Cairns has won two trials - as libel claimant then perjury defendant - stemming from the 2010 tweet by IPL Twenty20 boss Lalit Modi claiming Cairns was involved in match-fixing. Yet Cairns' life has been turned upside down. I know people who feel very sorry for Chris Cairns. Lengthy litigation drains people, destroys them.

As for cricket, it will always be in the dock over match fixing unfortunately. There have been far too many proven cases involving top players for any of us to believe, beyond reasonable doubt, that it is completely clean.

Players such as McCullum have a duty to take any real concerns about match or spot fixing to the authorities. I hope they are not put off by what has happened, and continue to come forward.

Cairns has questioned some of McCullum's timing, but timing is not a crime. Players probably offer the best chance of keeping cricket as straight as possible. A strong culture based on this needs to develop among the game's elite.

The rest of us, meanwhile, kind of sweep the whole mess under the carpet in order to keep enjoying a game we love.

Yet I will never wholly trust cricket again. This doesn't enter my thinking while I'm watching games. But away from the oval, different matter.

The crooks are nibbling away, and will find the odd stray cricketer willing to play their dirty game. The day that Hansie Cronje - the braveheart South African captain - was unmasked as a cheat is the day I lost faith. When Lou Vincent fessed up, I felt shattered.

Hand on heart, and fingers crossed, the strong chances are that everything is above board in the matches we have seen and are about to see involving the Black Caps. Most international cricket is probably squeaky clean.

Then again, you wouldn't bet the house on it.