Oceania

Cricketing legend Sir Donald Bradman has welcomed an unprecedented legal move by cricket-mad Australian Prime Minister John Howard to protect the Bradman name from commercial exploitation.

New Zealand pay-television operator, Sky Network Television Ltd., has won rights to broadcast six of New Zealand's national rugby team?s tour matches in Europe and Japan later this year.

To coincide with the launch of the Extreme Sports Channel in the UK this month, a series of new programmes have been added to the channel's schedule on a pan-European basis.

VTV, recently-acquired by UK-based The Television Corporation and now part of Sunset+Vine, has won a new four year contract to produce and distribute coverage of English badminton until 2005.

The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRFU) has announced that the All Blacks will play a Pacific rim Barbarians side in Tokyo in November.

Beer, usually greeted with relish in rugby clubs worldwide, is causing controversy in South Africa.

Mi Services Group, the IT solutions and services organisation, has become associate sponsor of the Newcastle Falcons rugby club throughout the 2000/2001 Zurich Premier Season.

Sky Network Television is not interested in purchasing the Auckland Warriors rugby league team despite a media report saying that it was considering a shareholding, stated chief executive Nate Smith.

Paul Cayard?s AmericaOne, the top-placing United States team for America's Cup XXX, is to sell off its prime physical assets to a new race team led by fellow St. Francis Yacht Club member, Larry Ellison

Four foreign soccer players in Singapore have been arrested in connection with a local match-fixing probe, according to a local media report.

FIFA will not change the result of the vote that gave the 2006 World Cup finals to Germany despite an appeal being mounted by narrow losers South Africa, a FIFA official said on Thursday.

Pakistan cricketers, dogged by allegations of corruption, will have an undercover agent assigned to spy on them during home and away tours, according to local media reports.

New Zealand Cricket has extended its sponsorship agreement with Clear Channel, the Texas-based media company.

FIFA has confirmed that the controversial vote that awarded Germany the 2006 World Cup ahead of South Africa was valid and would stand, despite increasing calls for a rerun.

The chairman of South Africa's World Cup bid committee has supported New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark's call for a rerun of a controversial vote which awarded the 2006 tournament to Germany.

Oceania's FIFA representative, who created an international storm after he abstained from a close vote that gave the 2006 World Cup to Germany, has said he would retire at the end of September.