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'No problem testifying', says Taylor

Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor says he is prepared to give evidence before a Pakistani match-fixing inquiry, but is worried that the issue might provoke animosity towards his touring team.

Australia starts the first of three Tests against the hosts in Rawalpindi on Thursday. Australian Cricket Board chief executive Mal Speed said they had received no official notification from its Pakistani counterpart, but said it was possible that Taylor and Mark Waugh might be called to give evidence.

Waugh was one of three players who accused Pakistan's Salim Malik of trying to bribe them during a 1994 tour. Malik is under investigation along with several others, including Wasim Akram.

Taylor said he had no problems with giving evidence that he was aware of accusations from Waugh, Tim May and Shane Warne that Malik had offered them bribes.

"It wouldn't worry me fronting up to the commission,'' Taylor told Australian reporters today. "But I think it's something that has to be decided by the boards on what is politically correct at this stage.

"I don't want to inflame the situation. My understanding is it's an internal investigation and we are right at the start of a serious tour of cricket.''

Taylor said his greatest concern was that matters become inflamed and ... "spill over onto the field.''

The Australians have never attended a hearing in Pakistan to discuss their 1994 allegations against Malik. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood was reported by the Australian newspaper as saying that "the chance to appear now is a good offer to substantiate the allegations of four years ago.''

"In the past the players couldn't come for various reasons but now they are here and it's a great chance,'' the paper quoted Mahmood as saying. "If any of my players had levelled accusations against any other team's player I would have encouraged him to appear before the inquiry commission.''

The hearings are being held in Lahore, which is hundreds of kilometers from any of Australia's test venues on this tour, and only on Saturdays.

The Pakistani High Commission in Canberra said the Australians could not be ordered to front the hearings because they are covered by diplomatic immunity.

UNI