Sub-Saharan Africa

Federal investigators questioned India's former cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin for three hours on Thursday over his alleged involvement in match-fixing.

South Africa?s golf tour has concluded a new five-year sponsorship deal with Vodacom, which will see Vodacom remain the cellular network partner of choice in professional tournament golf.

South African World Cup 2006 bid officials have said it would be a pity if the chances of rivals England were scuttled by UEFA'S threat to expel the English team from the European championship finals.

England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup finals appears to have been dealt a fatal blow by the violent behaviour of the hooligans who caused mayhem over the weekend in Belgium, according to senior FIFA figures.

English soccer chiefs were planning to hold an urgent meeting with European governing body UEFA today in a bid to stop a new generation of hooligans from destroying their Euro 2000 campaign and seriously undermining their 2006 World Cup bid.

South Africa's 2006 World Cup bid committee officials will meet their Brazil counterparts next week to discuss a possible deal over Brazilian backing for South Africa's bid.

Organisers lost over $2 million when benefit cricket matches involving Indian, South African and Sri Lankan players were called off following the recent match fixing controversy.

Former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje confessed on Thursday to approaching two team mates about fixing a one-day match against India this year and admitted accepting nearly $100,000 from bookmakers since 1996.

UK commercial radio station talkSPORT has won the rights to broadcast exclusive coverage of the England cricket tour to the West Indies in 2004.

South African cricket boss Ali Bacher has rejected an allegation in a newspaper that he fixed a match during a rebel tour by a West Indies side in the 1980s.

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) is pushing on with the "world-first" indoor series against South Africa in Melbourne in August, despite concerns over the venue's playing surface.

The King commission into match-fixing faces a crucial week in which it will hear the testimony of former South African captain Hansie Cronje, the man at the centre of the storm.

South Africa's Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour will meet Moroccan World Cup bid officials in Rabat to discuss the possibility of Morocco withdrawing from the 2006 race.

South Africa's World Cup bid chief said he was prepared to do a deal with rivals Brazil in order to secure South American backing in the vote to decide who hosts the 2006 tournament.

Organisers of England's bid to host the 2006 World Cup have shrugged off a report claiming South America had offered its backing to rival bidders South Africa.

Nigeria will build an ultra-modern stadium in the capital Abuja for the 2003 All-African Games.