The Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds has been fined for sledging a New Zealand player.Symonds made a disparaging comment about the Kiwi wicket-keeper, Brendon McCullum, during a live radio interview.It's the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Queensland all-rounder. But some cricket commentators say his $4000 fine is not big enough.

Rachael Brown reports.RACHAEL BROWN: Sledging has become part and parcel of world cricket, but off-field, Cricket Australia says it's not on.Last Friday, as Australia Day approached, Andrew Symonds appeared to slur his way through a live interview on Melbourne's commercial radio station, Triple M.

And he didn't mince his words about Kiwi wicket-keeper, Brendon McCullum, and his selection for New South Wales domestic Twenty20 final.ANDREW SYMONDS:  is the subject, he is the lump of shit, sorry the lump of cow dirt that um, that people are thinking of.

RACHAEL BROWN: Symonds went on to explain he didn't have a problem with McCullum himself, just the principal.ANDREW SYMONDS: The actual topic is about playing cricket and getting yourself into a final. RACHAEL BROWN: But the damage had already been done. He also made an aside about the wife of his former team mate Matthew Hayden, when talking about dinners at their house.

ANDREW SYMONDS: I have had the odd side glance at his wife which helps the meal go down, you know, amply well.RACHAEL BROWN: Today, as the mercury soared into the 40s in Victoria, inside Cricket Australia's Melbourne headquarters, Symonds was feeling the heat at his disciplinary hearing.Symonds pleaded guilty to making a detrimental public comment and breaching Cricket Australia's code of behaviour. He's been fined $4,000. After the hearing Symonds apologised for any hurt he'd caused.

ANDREW SYMONDS: Whilst the comments were intended to be light hearted, I acknowledge that they were careless, and as such I accept the fine that I received today. I am pleased that the commissioner determined the penalty based on the full 14-minute interview, and not just the one comment that received extensive coverage.

RACHAEL BROWN: He read from a prepared statement and took no questions.ANDREW SYMONDS: I want to again apologise to Brendan McCullum for my comments and thank him for his understanding. I want to reinforce that I remain committed to Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket and look forward to putting this matter behind me, so I can focus on my cricket.

RACHAEL BROWN: Earlier today, Australian Captain Ricky Ponting, took the same line as his teammates, and said it was best left to Cricket Australia.RICKY PONTING: Him not being around outside and being part of our set up when this incident took place probably makes it a bit hard for me to talk about it and make any judgements on it. As you know it's a code of conduct or code of behaviour issue that is being deal with today by some independent people.

RACHAEL BROWN: Cricket writer, Gideon Haigh, says although he understands Cricket Australia's hands were tied to a degree with the fine it could impose, he's amazed by its leniency.GIDEON HAIGH: But in this case the offence was so egregious and so obvious and there was virtually no, sort of, redeeming feature or mitigating circumstance that I think that Cricket Australia looks as though it's not just lightly touched him on the wrist but administered punishment with the most exquisite and delicate feather.I

 mean in this instance the comments by Symonds were so stupid and so childish that they're almost had to be some alternative explanation for him. I don't know what that was; whether he was under the influence of alcohol at the time that he made them. You almost hope that he was because otherwise he emerges simply as a dumb as a box of hammers.

RACHAEL BROWN: Is this just one strike too many?GIDEON HAIGH: Well certainly over the last nine to 12 months, Symonds has looked like an accident waiting to happen. And I think there is, Cricket Australia feels as though perhaps it owes him one for the circumstances of the Harbhajan story of early last year.

I know that there was a great sense of dissatisfaction among the players that Cricket Australia's attitude and a sense that maybe they were left to carry the can in a way that the administrators should have prevented. So perhaps they're making it up to him now.

RACHAEL BROWN: Mr Haigh thinks Cricket Australia is treading very carefully where discipline is concerned. GIDEON HAIGH: And that may or may not have something to do with the fact that over the next six months they'll be negotiating the next memorandum of understanding with the Australian Cricketers' Association and that they want to remain, in the interim, on side with the players and not do too much to offend them.

RACHAEL BROWN: The slurred radio insult is the latest blip on Symonds' CV. Last year, the all-rounder was expelled from the team for missing a compulsory team meeting to go fishing.During the 2005 Ashes tour Symonds showed up drunk for a one-day game and was threatened with the sack by Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland.
the end of the controversial interview that's now cost Symonds $4000, and more in the reputation stakes, he was discussing athletes appearing in TV commercials.

ANDREW SYMONDS: As to do with athletes, I think, the less they speak, the better they are.  RACHAEL BROWN: Perhaps in future he'll heed his own advice.ASHLEY HALL: That report from our reporter Rachael Brown.