Cricket: Cairns keeps interest

Chris Cairns. Photo / Greg Bowker

Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns is still taking a keen interest in the Black Caps, even though he has fallen a long way off the radar in his new stint in Dubai.

It's understood Cairns has tried his hand with a bit of coaching in the region but more recently he's been working as a cricket columnist on the United Arab Emirates daily newspaper, The National.

The paper has recruited Cairns with the Black Caps on tour in the region.

He is thought to be constructing the pieces himself rather than risking a ghostwriter misinterpreting his thoughts, just as he did when a columnist for the Herald on Sunday.

Cairns' path to Dubai took him through India where he had a brief stint in the ICL, the rebel Twenty20 league.

He left the Chandigarh Lions from the now dormant ICL in unusual circumstances last year. He was suspended with teammate Dinesh Mongia on disciplinary grounds with what was claimed to be an undeclared ankle injury.

That's alleged to have occurred during his New Zealand charity walk for rail safety in memory of his 19-year-old sister Louise who was killed in a 1993 crash at Rolleston, just south of Christchurch.

Cairns completed that walk with his then new partner Melanie Croser, a former Australian basketballer, after the end of his marriage to second wife Carin, with whom he has two children.

With his return to the public eye, Cairns has proven to have a colourful turn of phrase, describing captain Daniel Vettori's slogging as looking like he's "using a piece of wet celery" and metaphorically describing test cricket as Madonna, 50-over matches as Britney Spears and Twenty20 as Beyonce.

The former all-rounder has also addressed topics such as making Twenty20 matches into more than just organised exhibitions in meaningless series and added some astute observations on unrest in the Pakistani camp before Younus Khan departed once and for all as skipper.

Cairns politely declined to give his thoughts to the Herald on Sunday when asked to talk about what has seemed to be an awkward past 18 months.

"It's more about me and the present. For instance, I've been watching this coaching debate from a distance to see how the Black Caps have played first hand in Abu Dhabi and Dubai."