Paralysed Kiwi great Chris Cairns opens up on pain wrought by match-fixing trials

New Zealand cricket great Chris Cairns feels he can talk candidly about the pain of match-fixing allegations brought against him now that he has survived multiple health scares.

The former all-rounder spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the court battles to clear his name spanning 2012 to 2015.

Interviewed on a podcast hosted by media company NZME, Cairns said the high-profile trials had consumed his life and that he had harboured "anger and animosity" after having his credibility scrutinised and his career effectively shredded - even though he was never found guilty.

The 51-year-old's attitude has changed since suffering a heart attack last August that placed him on life support.

He subsequently became paralysed from the waist down after suffering a stroke during one of four open-heart surgeries.

In February, he revealed he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

Canberra-based Cairns told the podcast the health battles carried a silver lining - helping cleanse his mind of the dark feelings that had hounded him since 2015.

"I harboured a lot of anger and frustration, but I carried that silently. I dug my hole in Australia and got on with life ... but I was angry," he said.

"But now, after the last seven months, it's so far down my thinking. It's not a priority. It seems like another time, another place.

"Maybe during that time it (the match-fixing trials) built up the steel in me that allowed me to survive what I went through - because it was about survival at that time. I was on my own, cast as the villain, that was my role.

"Building that resilience up, who's to say that wasn't a contributing factor in helping me fight."

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In March 2012, Cairns