SYDNEY, Dec 9 (AFP) - Australian cricket authorities admitted on Wednesday they had covered up the fact that star spinner Shane Warne and batsman Mark Waugh were paid by an illegal Indian bookie four years ago.

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive Malcolm Speed told ABC radio that Waugh was fined 10,000 Australian dollars (6,000 US) and Warne 8,000 dollars in 1995 for passing on information about the ground and weather to a Madras bookmaker during a brief tour of Sri Lanka on their way to Pakistan in 1994.

Speed told ABC radio they considered the matter closed.

"Fines were imposed, the fines were paid, there's no suggestion of bribery or match fixing," he said.

"As far as the Australian Cricket Board is concerned that's the end of the matter."

Former ACB chief executive Graham Halbish, who handled the case, and then coach Bob Simpson declined to comment.

Speed said the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council, had been informed of the case at the time.

He would not say how much the players had been paid, but claimed it was not in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Speed said he did not know why the incident had not been made public by the ACB at the time.

"That's something I've reflected on. I wasn't here at the time, it was a decision made by management at the time and I'm sure they had good reason for it," he told ABC radio.

"Perhaps it might have been done differently but I think the board addressed it very seriously and dealt with it in a manner which they thought was proper at the time.

"From the Australian Cricket Board's point of view it dealt with the matter as soon as it became aware of it.

"The charge was investigated, the players admitted to it, the penalty was imposed, the fine was paid, the ICC was advised about it."

The players were fined at the same time as Waugh, Warne and Tim May alleged they had been offered and rejected 200,000 US dollars to play badly on the Pakistan tour.

Those allegations led to a judicial inquiry in Pakistan into match-fixing.

Waugh and Australian captain Mark Taylor testified in October that former Pakistan captain Salim Malik offered bribes to Warne, Waugh and May when they toured Pakistan in 1994-95.

That inquiry into Malik, Wasim Akram and Ijaz Ahmad appeared now to be compromised.

Ali Sibtain Fazli, the solicitor in charge of the inquiry, said from Pakistan that Waugh and Taylor should have mentioned the incident in evidence.

"Mark Waugh and Taylor should've made some mention of it because they were made to give statements on oath. There should have been disclosures then," he said.

Speed said Warne and Waugh were due to appear at a press conference later on Wednesday.

Waugh is due to play for Australia in the third Test against England starting at Adelaide Oval on Friday, while Warne is absent through injury2E

Matthew Engel, editor of the influential cricket publication Wisden and covering the current England's Ashes Tour, described the cover-up as shocking.

"The shocking thing about this is not what Waugh and Warne actually may have done, which in itself is arguable in its seriousness, but the fact that the Australian Cricket Board thought it could cover it up," Engel told ABC radio.

"Frankly it's the sort of behaviour one expects of English cricket boards rather than Australian ones.

"This is one of the biggest scandals that cricket has ever faced and the attitude of the entire game and everyone in it is that it really doesn't matter much, that's been the attitude for four years.

"We've known that something's been going on for four years, we haven't known the details. It seems to me the administrators haven't wanted to know."