No ACB coverup on bookmaker scandal, says former chairman

Crompton, no longer an ACB member, was giving evidence here to a special hearing of the Pakistan judicial commission, which is investigating allegations of bribery and match fixing by Pakistan players.

Crompton read a prepared statement to the commission, detailing how the ACB learnt in early 1995 that Waugh and Warne had accepted money the previous year from an Indian bookmaker, identified only as 'John', during a tournament in Sri Lanka.

Warne and Waugh were fined by the ACB, but the matter was kept from the public until late last year.

Later, under cross-examination by Pakistan Cricket Board legal advisers, Crompton said the board did not make the fines public because of its policy.

``I deny in the strongest terms there was a cover-up,'' he said.

``The discipline of players for matters other than those in the public arena are private and that procedure was followed.''

Warne and Waugh testified to the commission on Friday and strenuously denied they had been involved in bribery or match fixing.

They said they had only provided the bookmaker with match and pitch information.

The commission decided to visit Australia after the revelations about Waugh and Warne, who had previously accused Pakistan batsman Salim Malik of offering them money to play badly during Australia's 1994 tour of Pakistan.

Former Australian Test spinner Tim May also told the inquiry Saturday that teammate Shane Warne had reacted with shock after saying he had been offered a bribe to throw a match against Pakistan.

May, now retired from Test cricket, said in evidence that Warne had been invited by former Pakistan captain Salim Malik to his hotel room the night before the last day of the first Test between the two countries in 1994, which Pakistan won.

May said Warne, fellow spinner and roommate, had returned after spending about 10 minutes with Malik and said he had offered Warne and May 200,000 US dollars each if they were prepared to play badly.

Reading from an affidavit he originally gave to the ACB in 1995, May said Warne was clearly shocked when he returned to the hotel room.

``He said 'you're not going to believe this' and told me we had been offered 200,000 dollars each,'' said May. But May said he had never talked to Malik about the issue.

May also recounted how the Australians learnt later in the tour that Mark Waugh had also allegedly been approached by Malik with another offer of 200,000 US dollars for Australian players to perform badly in a one-day match.

The commission will return to Pakistan on Sunday and sit again on January 16, with its findings expected by the end of the month.