Africa

Rugby World Cup chiefs are unlikely to answer calls to shut the retractable roof on Cardiff's new Millennium Stadium for Saturday's World Cup final and stage the first indoor test unless the players' safety is threatened.

Sportal, the Internet sports company, has agreed a five-year deal with the South Africa Rugby Football Union (SARFU) and South African investment company SAIL Media to develop www.sarfu.org.za, the official South Africa rugby site.

The Rugby World Cup third-place playoff between South Africa and New Zealand will be shown live on terrestial television in Wales, but nowhere else in Britain.

Guinness announced a 15 per cent sales increase in the UK for the September/October period during which they sponsored the Rugby World Cup.

The beleaguered organisers of the Rugby World Cup have criticised ITV's coverage of the event as a "disgrace" according to a report in the UK?s Guardian newspaper.

Sports ministers from 24 nations have called for a two-year ban across all sports for first-time doping offences and for year-round random drug testing.

Critics of South Africa's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup are making too much fuss over the country's crime statistics, campaign officials have said.

Criticisms levelled at South Africa's 2006 World Cup bid by Sir Bobby Charlton have been rebuffed by South African officials.

South African cricket president Raymond White is facing a motion to oust him as a campaign to appoint a non-white chief executive gathers momentum.

Ali Bacher is stepping down as managing director of South Africa's cricket board to concentrate on staging the 2003 World Cup.

South Africa's Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour has said his department would begin investigating the possibility of giving women the right to box.

Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour has this week began studying a long-awaited report from South African soccer officials seeking to unearth what's behind recent infighting within the national game.

South African rugby boss Louis Luyt has announced he would defy a black-led demand for his head, setting the stage for another period of isolation for white South Africa's favourite sport.

The Australian Rugby Union team, the Wallabies, have a new sponsor's name emblazoned on their jerseys. Vodafone Network, which is the third Australian mobile phone group, has paid about $A7 million in a naming rights sponsor deal.

An IOC report says preliminary results indicate that the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, were broadcast in more countries than ever before and that the global cumulative audience is likely to equal Lillehammer's record??.

South Africa's National Sports Council said on Sunday it was too soon to abandon plans to call for an international boycott of the rugby Springboks despite white rugby boss Louis Luyt's resignation.