Aussie bowler backs bribery allegations against Pakistani batsman

May, now retired from Test cricket, told a special hearing of the Pakistan judicial commission 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 room mate, had returned after spending about 10 minutes with Malik and said Malik had offered him and May 200,000 US dollars each if they were prepared to play badly.

Reading from an affidavit he originally gave to the Australian Cricket Board (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.

Former ACB chairman Alan Crompton was also giving testimony today.

The Pakistani inquiry into match-fixing was convened here after Warne and batsman Mark Waugh admitted selling information to an Indian bookmaker during the 1994 Singer Cup series in Sri Lanka.

Waugh told the inquiry he provided pitch and weather information on about 10 occasions and received the money from the bookmaker identified only as ``John''.

They told the inquiry here on Friday of an approach by Malik during a function in Pakistan in which he allegedly offered 200,000 US dollars if he could get four or five Australian players to play badly and lose a match the next day. But the offer had been refused.

Former Australian Cricket Board chairman Alan Crompton denied any attempt by the board to cover up the bookmaker scandal after it fined Waugh and Warne when they admitted accepting money from the Indian bookmaker.

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.''