Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns named Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey as people he match-fixed with, but said Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram wouldn't have "had the balls" to do it, a court has been told.
Giving evidence at Cairns' perjury trial on Thursday, Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum described an incident in 2008 in which Cairns asked him to help him match fix.
McCullum said Cairns had told him he had a team working for him, including Vincent and Tuffey.
"When he kept talking, in quite a relaxed nature as well ... he started saying everyone else was doing it in the world of cricket, all the 'big boys' were doing it," McCullum said.
"He said that Dan (Vettori) and Jake (Oram) wouldn't have the balls to do it."
Seated just 20 metres from Cairns in the dock at Southwark Crown Court, McCullum spoke about how the older player had once been a friend he looked up to.
"He was a legend of the game, a iconic New Zealand sportsman, cricketer, and a great ambassador of the game. Lots of people loved him."
McCullum said he was excited when, while having a drink with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting at a bar in India in 2008, he got a call from Cairns telling him he had a "business proposal".
However, when he went to meet Cairns, he was "shocked" to be asked to get involved in match fixing and told he could get between $US70,000 and $US180,000 per game.
"I wish I had said no straight away, but I couldn't comprehend that Chris would put me in a position where he'd risk my future in the game," McCullum told the court.
McCullum said he rejected the proposal during a subsequent phone call, and again when Cairns met him for breakfast in England and asked again.
McCullum said he wished he had reported the approach to officials at the time, but he was not as aware of the rules around reporting at that time.
"I didn't want it to be true. He was someone who I still considered a friend. And I didn't want to rat on him, for want of a better word," McCullum said.
"I felt he was, Chris was, a hero, and I didn't feel like I was threatened by his approaches, and I felt I could deal with it without making it an issue."
The defence questioned McCullum's story, noting what Cairns' lawyer Orlando Pownall said were several "inconsistencies".
"I'm going to suggest you haven't told the unvarnished truth, you have not the truth and nothing but the truth in those statement," Mr Pownall said.
A crowd of New Zealanders have turned out to watch McCullum give evidence, with the public gallery packed and many people left standing outside the court room.
Cairns is charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to a 2012 libel trial.
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