ADELAIDE, Australia, Dec 11 (AFP) - Australian cricket authorities will carry out an immediate inquiry to try to restore their tarnished image after this week's revelations that two star players were paid by an Indian bookmaker.

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Denis Rogers admitted here Friday they were worried other players may have been targeted by bookies.

The press and public has demanded an investigation after the ACB was forced to reveal it had covered up fines imposed on batsman Mark Waugh and leg-spinner Shane Warne for passing information to a bookmaker while in Sri Lanka four years ago.

"The right thing is to expand our level of inquiry to make sure there are not any sleepers around," Rogers said.

"What I am concerned about is that two former Test players -- Australian Greg Matthews and New Zealander Danny Morrison -- have made statements in connection with cricket betting."

Rogers, who did not imply that Matthews and Morrison did anything illegal, said the inquiry would start at the end of the third Ashes Test which got under way at the Adelaide Oval on Friday.

"Damage has been done to Australian cricket and we have some repair work to do," he said.

"We have a responsibility to instigate something that clears this once and for all. I want to be very open about this," Rogers added.

He vigorously denied suggestions there had been a cover-up over the Waugh/Warne affair.

They were fined a total of 18,000 dollars (11,000 US) in February 1995 for providing information on playing conditions to the bookmaker during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka but the incident was kept secret until this week.

"It was no cover-up," Rogers said. "No one sat around a table with some sinister motive to cover it up. It was seen as a major indiscretion by two players who admitted it and it was dealt with.

"There has never been any evidence the two Australians were ever associated with match-fixing.

"The Waugh-Warne case is over. The people in office at the time investigated it, were happy with their investigations, fines were imposed and they were paid. You cannot fine people twice."

Rogers did not agree that Warne and Waugh should go to Pakistan to be cross-examined in a judicial inquiry into match-fixing allegations against former Pakistan captain Salim Malik, Wasim Akram and Ijaz Ahmad.

Malik is alleged to have approached Waugh, Warne and Tim May to throw a match in 1994.

Waugh and Australian captain Mark Taylor, in the absence of Warne who was recovering from injury, were called as witnesses to that inquiry during Australia's October tour of Pakistan.

Pakistan Cricket Board chief Khalid Mahmood has called on the ACB to send Waugh and Warne back to be cross-examined.

But Rogers said it would have been unfair to expect Waugh to admit in October that he had been paid by an Indian bookmaker.

He said Waugh and Taylor had initially been asked to give evidence at the judge's home but eventually found themselves in a courtroom in front of a full press gallery being examined by Malik's lawyer.

Rogers did not rule out the possibility that Warne, 29, could one day be Australian captain, despite his sullied reputation.

Warne has for some time been seen as a probable future skipper, provided he recovers fully from complex shoulder surgery which has forced him out of Tests so far this summer.

But the Australian media has come out almost unanimously against Warne ever taking the captaincy.

Rogers said the ACB would support moves to give the International Cricket Council wide-ranging powers for a full investigation into betting.