Waugh declines to be interviewed

SYDNEY - Mark Waugh, acting on advice from his lawyers, has refused to be interviewed by the Australian Cricket Board's special investigator Greg Mellick.

Mellick and the International Cricket Council's chief investigator Sir Paul Condon had planned to interview Waugh early next month over allegations contained in an Indian police report that he had taken $US20,000 ($A36,000) from illegal bookmaker MK Gupta.

A statement issued by Waugh's manager Leo Karis in Sydney today said: "Mark Waugh's lawyer Raff Pisano of Maddock, Lonie & Chisholm today informed the ACB that her client has presently declined its request for him to be interviewed by ACB and ICC investigators in early February.

"Pisano says Waugh has co-operated with previous ACB and ICC inquiries and is continuing to co-operate with their present inquiries.

"The ACB and the ICC have not provided Waugh with any evidence about the unsubstantiated allegations made by MK Gupta in the CBI report.

"He has already denied those allegations.

"Waugh's focus is on his commitment to cricket and to ensure the game's reputation is not further tarnished by endless inquiries and speculation," the statement concluded.

The only public forum in which Waugh has addressed the latest allegations was in an impromptu media conference on Queensland's Sunshine Coast last year.

He said then he had already participated in the two inquiries conducted in Australia and Pakistan.

In 1998, Waugh and Shane Warne admitted to taking money from a bookmaker called "John" in return for pitch and weather information in 1994.

The two players were fined by the ACB in 1995 but the matter was hushed up until it was exposed in 1998.

Both Karis and Pisano, when asked for a reason for Waugh's refusal to be interviewed, put the emphasis on the fact Waugh had "presently declined" to be interviewed.

Neither would speculate on whether Waugh would agree to be interviewed at a later stage.