Mark Taylor yesterday called for an International Cricket Council inquiry into corruption in the game - then admitted he feared it would never happen.

The Australian captain was speaking in the aftermath of the revelations that Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were fined by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) for providing information on weather and pitch conditions to an Indian bookmaker during a tour to Sri Lanka four years ago.

But as Taylor attempted to reduce the hysteria into the betting scandal which has engulfed Australia by giving a candid press conference in Adelaide, he conceded that hopes of forming a body to rid cricket of betting, gambling and match-fixing is unlikely to happen until all the Testplaying nations find a consensus of opinion.

"An ICC investigation sounds very good, but I don't know how much that would achieve either," he stressed.

"It would depend on how much clout the ICC has and it's up to the individual countries to give the ICC the power to act on that.

"By that I mean they get to be judge and jury in any sort of inquiry and I don't believe that will ever happen. It sounds very idealistic, but I'm not sure whether it would work although I'm all for it."

But Taylor does not believe the inquiry, if it ever happened, should restrict itself to just betting and would advocate a complete investigation into all the controversies affecting cricket.

"You can talk about ball-tampering, throwing and all these sort of things which sounds very good but when you've got different countries and different cultures coming together to form a body you are always going to get different opinions," he said. "It's going to be very hard to put one person in control of a situation like this." Taylor also attempted to underline the Australian team's support for both players and stressed that their offences were nothing in comparison to the match-fixing allegations in Pakistan.

He said: "People are allowed to make mistakes whether your Shane Warne, Mark Waugh or Mark Taylor. They made a mistake and they have to try and put that behind them - life will go on.

"There are people who will try and put Mark and Shane in the same bracket as what's been going on in Pakistan. They have both admitted talking to a bookie and giving out information and receiving money for it. As soon as they were found out they were told to stop and haven't done it since.

"We're all too high and mighty to say you can't make a mistake. They did the wrong thing and took a cheap dollar but it's nothing more than that.

"Mark and Shane did something very silly four years ago by taking some money to give some information which probably most guys do for radio stations and TV networks week in and week out.

"They gave it to a bookie and that's wrong. If it involved throwing matches or not giving 100 per cent day in and day out there would be a lot more to it than that and that certainly isn't the case. If you look at their records as individuals and our record as a team since 1994, it's second to none.

"I don't think anyone can put a slant on the fact that we haven't been playing the best possible cricket during that four year period."

He added: "I have no problems playing with either player, I have enjoyed playing cricket with them and I think their records show they have been great players for Australia and I certainly hope this continues for a long time yet.

"I mentioned this at the team meeting with all the players the other night. I said I had no problems playing with either of them and asked all the other players individually if they had any problems playing with Mark and Shane and that certainly isn't the case - it certainly won't divide the Australian cricket team."