Steve Waugh fears brother Mark will reach breaking point

Australian Test cricket captain Steve Waugh fears his brother Mark will reach a mental breaking point because of the accusations of an Indian bookmaker.

"It comes to a stage when it all gets a bit too much ... I don't think it's reached that stage yet because he's still playing well," Steve Waugh said on Friday.

"But if it continues it is obviously not going to be easy.

"It's a difficult time but he'll have a lot of support and he'll come through this."

Mark Waugh denied on Thursday an allegation in an Indian police report that he received 20,000 US dollars from an illegal Indian bookmaker.

A report by India's Central Bureau of Investigation released on Wednesday, includes a claim that M K Gupta, also known as John, paid Waugh the money to provide information on team strategy, pitch and weather information.

The amount is five times greater than the 4,000 dollars Waugh admitted two years ago to receiving from a bookmaker known as "John" in Sri Lanka in 1994 for weather and pitch information.

Waugh's admission then came at the same time as Test teammate Shane Warne said he had received 5,000 dollars for providing similar information.

Both Waugh and Warne were fined the following year but the incident did not become public until 1998.

Waugh later testified to both a Pakistani inquiry and the O'Regan inquiry in Australia that this was his only dealings with illegal cricket bookmakers.

Steve Waugh said it was impossible for his brother to ignore the issue.

"You can't just pretend it is not happening, we certainly talked about it," he said.

"He needs to get proper advice from people he trusts.

"I feel very sorry for him at the moment."

"It's hard for myself and the family when you pick up a lot of headlines. It's not easy."

Mark Waugh said Thursday he looked forward to having the matter behind him.

"It would be nice to bury it and get on with playing cricket.

"It's been a long saga and I'm confident it will be buried shortly and we can get on with the game."

Mail Cricket Editor