Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 1 February 12:30 pm

Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:

# We start off with cricket: Defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape have secured their place in the SA20 playoffs with a bonus point nine-wicket victory over the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers. Australia’s Dan Worrall took three wickets as the homeside was bowled out for just 78. In reply, the Sunrisers cruised through their run chase with English pair Dawid Malan and Tom Abell sharing an unbroken 50-run partnership for the second wicket. Worrall says they have an all-round team which puts them in a great position in the competition:

# Rugby: SA Rugby has appointed Peter Jooste as the new administrator of the Western Province Rugby Football Union. He succeeds Max Fuzani, who has stepped down following his appointment as a special advisor to the minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa. The rugby union has been under administration since October 2021 and has mounting debt, understood to be more than 500-million-rand. SA Rugby president, Mark Alexander, has thanked Jooste for taking on the role to complete the process of the union’s exit from administration.

# Golf: The PGA Tour has launched a deal of around 56-billion-rand with Strategic Sports Group, led by Premier League side Liverpool owners, Fenway Sports Group. Players who have remained loyal to the tour and rejected advances from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf are set to receive 28-billion-rand in immediate and future equity. The funds will be realised to players according to career accomplishments, recent achievements, and future participation. Former world number one, Jordan Spieth, says this investment could put the PGA Tour in its ever-strongest position:

# Olympics: The French government has announced a limitation on spectators at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, citing security and other organisational challenges. No more than 300-thousand people will be allowed on the banks of the Seine when the ceremony takes place on boats on the famous river on the 26th of July. Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin says 100-thousand tickets have already been sold for the best vantage points, while another 200-thousand spectators will be given free access to the upper banks.

# And finally, motorsport: Formula One has rejected the Andretti team’s bid to join the sport in 2025 or 2026. The bid, which has been headed up by former McLaren driver Michael Andretti and his father Mario, the 1978 world champion, had been approved by the governing body, the FIA. However, F1, as the sport’s commercial rights holder, says their assessment process has established that the presence of an eleventh team on the grid would not, on its own, provide value to the championship. It has however left the door open for admission from 2028.

Stay tuned for more news………….