It is understood Cairns suffered a major medical emergency – an aortic dissection – in Canberra last week.

This is when a tear occurs in the inner layer of the body’s main artery.

He will be transferred to a specialist hospital in Sydney soon.

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He has reportedly undergone several operations while in hospital, but has not responded to treatment as hoped.

Cairns, 51, the son of Black Cap legend Lance Cairns, was a right-hand batsman and fast-medium bowler.

He was known as one of the finest all-rounders of his generation.

Cairns played 62 test matches, 215 one day internationals and two T20s for New Zealand between 1989 and 2006. He went on to become a commentator with Sky Sport in New Zealand. Cairns has been living and working in Canberra with his wife Mel and their children for several years.

He has been the chief executive of SmartSportz, a company specialising in virtual sport.

Cairns had to rebuild his life after walking out of Southwark Crown Court in London in 2015 after being found not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice charges in relation to match-fixing allegations.

Social media was quick to send its well wishes for the cricket legend.

More details here: https://t.co/rQ6ttC7dUo

— Andrew Gourdie (@AndrewGourdie) August 10, 2021

very best wishes to Chris Cairns who is seriously ill in hospital https://t.co/QWS84RQ1ip

— Rick Eyre on cricket 💉💉 (@rickeyrecricket) August 10, 2021

Just saw news about Chris Cairns being on life support. Prayers for his speedy recovery. I just hope he gets through this. The uncertainties of life makes us all so fragile and helpless. Get well soon champ 🤞#ChrisCairns

— Mikkhail Vaswani (@MikkhailVaswani) August 10, 2021

Terrible news. I used to love watching Chris Cairns bat and bowl. He was the Kiwi version of Gary Gilmour. https://t.co/VXKNXHv6tK

— Brad Walter (@BradWalterSport) August 10, 2021