“CRICKETER has sex with wife” is not one of those headlines that titillates tabloid editors (not if it is the player’s own wife, anyway) but it was to prevent the publication of a video of him and his wife in bed that led to Craig McDermott, the former Australia fast bowler, leaving his house on Friday with a police surveillance wire taped to his chest.

On Saturday, Peter Josef Vigan, 36, appeared at Southport Magistrates’ Court in Queensland charged with blackmailing McDermott for tens of thousands of pounds.

For nine months, McDermott, 41, had received repeated demands for money from a blackmailer who claimed to have explicit footage of the cricketer and his third wife, Ann-Maree, and was threatening to publish it on the internet. Police allege that a video camera and “a number of home movies” were stolen from McDermott’s yacht at a marina on Australia’s Gold Coast near the end of 2003.

McDermott had paid the extortionist A$50,000 (about £20,000) in eight instalments since January, leaving the money at a shopping centre each time. One video was sent back to him, although a second returned tape showed only a man, believed to be Vigan, opening Christmas presents with his family.

McDermott, who had reported neither the theft nor the earlier blackmails, went to the police on Friday after receiving a demand for a further $10,000. He was fitted with a listening device, which recorded McDermott’s meeting with Vigan on Friday night.

Police arrested Vigan as he tried to escape. He was granted bail on Saturday and is due to attend court again on December 5. McDermott avoided his private video following those of Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton into internet celebrity.

McDermott, who played 71 Tests for Australia between 1984 and 1996, told an Australian news programme that he had experienced “the worst couple of days in my life” and that his main concern was for his family.

“My wife and my boys are my world,” McDermott said. “We are the victims here. We have done nothing wrong. I don’t want the tapes to be construed as something they are not. The tapes are of myself and my wife, Ann-Maree. They are family tapes.”

McDermott was a powerful and aggressive fast bowler who burst into the Australia team when they were at a low ebb in the mid-1980s, taking six West Indies wickets on his Test debut as a 19-year-old. He was hailed by a hungry Australian media as the next Dennis Lillee.

The red-haired Queensland bowler was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1986 after he took 30 England wickets in his first Ashes series the previous summer and was the linchpin of a weak Australia attack.

He helped Australia to win the World Cup the next year, taking 18 wickets in the tournament, including five for 44 in the semi-final victory over Pakistan, but he was often overbowled and a string of injuries, including a twisted bowel and a broken ankle, limited his appearances.

His prodigious achievements at a young age earned him the nickname Billy the Kid.

McDermott always seemed to save his best for England, taking 32 wickets in the 1994-95 series and returning his best bowling analysis of eight for 97 in Perth in 1991.

Although his batting was weak, he played some fine innings in adversity. In 1993, Australia lost a Test by one run to West Indies when McDermott, who had made 18 batting at No 11, was controversially given out caught behind by Darrell Hair. A year later, he made 29 not out as Australia lost by five runs to South Africa, chasing 117.

Since retiring from cricket in 1997, McDermott has made a fortune in property development through his company, Maxen Developments.

LIFE AND TIMES OF BILLY THE KID

Born: April 14, 1965, in Ipswich, Queensland

Test debut: December 22, 1984 v West Indies in Melbourne

Final Test: January 29, 1996 v Sri Lanka in Adelaide

Test record: 71 Tests; 291 wickets at 28.6; 940 runs at 12.2

One-day record: 138 matches; 203 wickets at 24.7; 432 runs at 7.1

Best bowling: Eight for 97 in Perth in 1991 as England collapsed from 191 for two to 244 all out