Cricket fanatic and Deputy Mayor Hamish McDouall is "100 per cent" confident cricket star Chris Cairns would never have been involved in match-fixing while playing for New Zealand.
Mr McDouall, who released a biography on Cairns in 2002, is following the UK trial in which Cairns is accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Cairns faces the charges in relation to a 2012 libel case, in which he said he had "never, ever cheated at cricket".
He has denied all charges.
Mr McDouall spent at least 60 hours doing interviews for the book, although he was unsure he many of those hours were spent interviewing Cairns, but said it was "a lot".
"It will be very interesting to see how it plays out and who's testifying for each side," Mr McDouall said. "It's a shame that it's happened in the way it has."
He had not kept in regular contact with Cairns since publishing the book, and said he was surprised to hear of match-fixing allegations.
"I remember discussing match-fixing with him. He was absolutely damning of it.
"If this turns out to be true ... I would still say that whenever Chris played for New Zealand he always held that very near to his heart."
Mr McDouall said he was confident that "not a single incident" of match-fixing would have occurred while Cairns was playing for New Zealand.
"He always spoke of it as the greatest honour. It would be inconsistent with that."
Mr McDouall said he believes Cairns' personal circumstances would have had to change for him to cheat at cricket. He spoke of Cairns' "two failed marriages", injuries, and the children he was supporting.
Mr McDouall did not think the allegations detracted from his book.
"If this has been done and is proved, then it's probably a good thing to go back to remember just how good Chris Cairns was as a player. I think it may be a quite important legacy, really. Ironically."
Mr McDouall said the punishment, if Cairns was found guilty, would partly be "the fact that he was a legend, one of the true greats of New Zealand cricket, whose image will always be tarnished".
He said match-fixing damaged the integrity of the sport.
"I'm certainly hoping that he's not found guilty of perjury. I'm very much hoping he's not. "