Former New Zealand cricketer Cairns on life support

Former New Zealand cricket all-rounder Chris Cairns is on life support at a Canberra hospital after recently collapsing with a heart problem, New Zealand media reported on Tuesday.

Cairns, 51, had undergone several operations after suffering an aortic dissection but had not responded to treatment as hoped, Newshub reported. An aortic dissection is a tear in the body's main artery.

Newshub said he would be transferred to a specialist hospital in Sydney.

New Zealand's cricket players' union was unable to provide immediate comment.

A New Zealand Cricket spokesman said the board was respecting Cairns' right to privacy and declined to comment on the situation.

Regarded one of the best all-rounders of his era, Cairns played 62 tests, 215 one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches for New Zealand between 1989-2006 before becoming a television pundit.

His father Lance also represented New Zealand in cricket.

Cairns has lived in Canberra for several years after his marriage to Australian Melanie Croser in 2010.

After retiring from international cricket, Cairns was the subject of allegations of match-fixing in India as captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL) in 2008.

He denied any wrongdoing and fought several legal battles to clear his name, winning a libel case against former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi in 2012.

In 2015, he was cleared of perjury in relation to the libel case after being charged by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service.