F1 'SPYING' ROW COMES TO LONDON COURT

A bitter row between the Ferrari and McLaren Formula One teams over alleged espionage in Formula One came to London's High Court Tuesday.

Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney was sacked after being accused of supplying McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan with over 500 pages of secret Ferrari technical information in April.

At Tuesday's preliminary hearing in a case relating to the intellectual property dimension of the row, Coughlan and his wife Trudy were ordered to pay costs following an early morning search of their home by officials last week.

Nigel Tozzi, the lawyer representing Ferrari, told Justice Michael Briggs that the Coughlans should not have had documents which were found during the search.

The defendants had "behaved disgracefully," he said, adding that Ferrari could have remained "blissfully ignorant" of what had happened had it not been for a tip-off.

For the Coughlans, Martin Palmer argued that the defendants had behaved responsibly and any decision should be delayed pending further interim hearings.

The judge noted that Coughlan, who was in court, behaved in an "entirely appropriate" manner when the search was conducted but ruled that payment should be made.

The case was adjourned until Wednesday amid a legal complication.

McLaren was not represented at the hearing.

Stepney, who denies any wrongdoing, is facing a criminal investigation under a separate process in Italy.

Gregan Wants Boks Out Too

Australia and New Zealand could ditch South Africa from the Tri Nations rugby competition and find a new partner, veteran Wallabies scrumhalf George Gregan said Thursday.

Gregan hit out at the Springboks, who have named an understrength team for Saturday's Tri Nations test against Australia, saying New Zealand and Australia could exclude South Africa from future Tri Nations play.

"If someone's not happy in a partnership, then obviously it's got to be dissolved and you've got to find a new way to move forward, and there's always been a really strong relationship between Australia and New Zealand," Gregan said.

"If that was to happen, you'd be able to find something which would work and it would give opportunities to a lot of the Pacific Islanders, other teams...Argentina, who knows.

"But they'd be able to come up with another concept if they (the South Africans) wanted to align themselves with the northern hemisphere."

Gregan was echoing comments from Australian rugby officials, angered by the Springbok's selection of second string teams in this year's Tri Nations, who have said South Africa's playing future might lie in Europe.

Those officials have suggested the Sanzar partnership of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa might be altered to exclude South Africa and include Argentina or a Pacific Islands combination.

SANZAR FOUNDER WANTS BOKS OUT

The South African Rugby Union is "an absolute disgrace" and the Springboks should be kicked out of the Tri-Nations, says David Moffett, one of the chief architects of SANZAR.

Moffett, the former head of the NRL and New Zealand, Wales and NSW rugby unions, told an Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia and New Zealand had to cut South Africa from the next television deal, and instead play more trans-Tasman matches.

"It is imperative that Australia and New Zealand cast South Africa adrift," Moffett said. "The players are just getting killed by all the travel."

And rather than having a Super 14 with five South African provinces, Moffett said the tournament should be disbanded and replaced by a Super 10 competition with five New Zealand teams and five Australian teams, with the fifth Australian team being based in Melbourne.

He added that when expansion was required, national teams from the Pacific Islands, based in Australia and New Zealand, should be included.

In 1996, Moffett was heavily involved in the formation of SANZAR, the Super 12 and Tri-Nations, but is now a vocal opponent. Speaking from New Zealand, where he recently moved after leaving the Welsh Rugby Union, Moffett said this Saturday's Test at Telstra Stadium had been tarnished by South Africa leaving 20 of their best players behind.

Moffett has been particularly trenchant on the subject in his newspaper column with The Press newspaper in Christchurch. He wrote at the weekend that: "With friends like South Africa who needs enemies? The SARU are an absolute disgrace and should be told immediately by NZ and Australia that they will not be required when the next television rights deal is negotiated [in 2010].

"We are led to believe that all three SANZAR countries had agreed to field their strongest teams, and in fact NZ and Australia had sent their best available players [to South Africa] and filled the stadia and coffers of SARU.

"What was the response of our supposed partner? They waited until after the second Test and selected a B team. If I was a paranoid type I would be thinking conspiracy. Denying NZ and Australia hard match practice against one of the best teams in the world in the lead-up to the World Cup will obviously harm the preparation of the All Blacks and Wallabies.

"Of course, the other injured party in this sorry saga of selfishness by SARU is SANZAR's major financial partner, News Limited. Their response so far has been muted, but I can imagine their fury behind the scenes."

Moffett said there was a simple solution - "ditch South Africa from the next TV deal".

"They behave more and more like northern hemisphere unions and should make it official by playing in competitions in the north," he said.

"New Zealand and Australia can get a much better deal for fans, players, sponsors and broadcasters by playing three Bledisloes a year, and a home and away trans-Tasman Super 10 competition. Selfishness seems to be the order of the day in the professional rugby era and perhaps now is the time for Australia and NZ to play that game."

Moffett said as the South Africans had treated Australia and New Zealand with disdain, the two countries should consider organising important lead-up matches in the UK just before the World Cup, so that they hit the tournament with match fitness and form.

STORMERS COACH BACKS GRANT

Western Province and Stormers coach Kobus van der Merwe, believes Peter Grant could make the Springbok No10 shirt his own during South Africa's upcoming away leg of the 2007 Tri-Nations.

Most of this week's talk has surrounded Jake White's decision to rest his best players from SA's annual Australasian jaunt, with new additions Peter Grant (fly-half) and Jannie du Plessis (prop) slipping in under the radar.

Van der Merwe, however, was full of praise for Stormers and WP pivot Grant, who impressed at flyhalf for the Emerging Springboks team that won the International Rugby Board (IRB) Nations Cup earlier this month.

And with Butch James being rested, Grant - who missed most of last year's Currie Cup with a serious shoulder injury, having played the first three matches at inside centre - will slug it out with Derick Hougaard for the Bok fly-half position over the next few weeks.

Hougaard, who played fly-half for South Africa at the 2003 Rugby World Cup before falling out of favour at national level, started against Samoa last month, but White is not a massive fan of the Bulls kicking machine.

"Peter [Grant] won't disappoint, he is an excellent player in good form," said Van der Merwe to Gareth Green of rugby365.com.

Aside from Grant, Van der Merwe wished WP's other four Bok representatives the best of luck for the upcoming tour, in particular scrum-half Johannes 'Bolla' Conradie, who has not played much of late.

"Bolla just got back from injury though, so he'll be a little rusty," warned the WP coach.

Conradie has been out injured since the Super 14 competition, having undergone an elbow operation. But touring with the Boks is nothing new to the George Gregan lookalike, who made his Test debut against Wales in 2002. Conradie, who is 29 years old, has played 15 Tests between '02 and 2005.

Van der Merwe, meanwhile, backed Jake White's much-talked about rotation policy, which will see SA's top 21 players miss the trip Down Under, much to the astonishment of the powers that be in Australia and New Zealand.

Said Van der Merwe: "Jake has his plan and he knows what he wants."

MBEKI DOES NOT WANT TO TAKE OVER RUGBY: KOMPELA

Rumours that President Thabo Mbeki was involved in a conspiracy to take over rugby were untrue, the chairman of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Sports, Butana Kompela, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the rugby unions' transformation briefing in Parliament, Kompela said while the rumours were not true, they were quite damaging.

"Transformation is national agenda of the constitution and not the agenda of an individual.

"I can assure you that there is no one in this country who would want to take over rugby, all that we want to achieve is transformation of this sport... " he said.

By not refuting Mbeki's conspiracy claims, the rugby sport leadership, Kompela said, was creating an impression that there was substance to the rumours.

"Despite the fact that these rumours are being published in newspapers, the rugby leadership has not distanced itself from them.

"We want the leadership to brief us on the issue and tell us what their position is," he said.

Wie not Wii

A row between the world's two best known women golfers is raising the temperature for this week's LPGA Championship, with Annika Sorenstam saying Michelle Wie lacked class in dealing with a wrist injury.

Former world number one Sorenstam took issue with a decision by teenager Wie to withdraw from a tournament last week when she was 14 over par, citing a wrist injury, only to practise two days later.

"I just feel there's a little bit of a lack of respect and class just to leave a tournament like that and then come out and practise here," Sorenstam told a news conference.

Wie was 16 holes into the opening round of last week's tournament in North Carolina week when she pulled out, complaining of a wrist injury that had kept her from playing since January.

Two days later, the 17-year-old, who recently graduated from high school, was practising at the Bulle Rock Golf Course in Maryland, the site of the LPGA Championship starting on Thursday.

Wie, who is not a member of the women's tour and has played courtesy of sponsors' exemptions, including in men's events, refused to back down.

"I don't think I need to apologise for anything," she said. "I just have to take care of my body and mover forward and only think of positive things."

Adding intrigue to her withdrawal was an LPGA rule that any non-member who shoots 88 or worse in a round is barred from the tour for the rest of the season. Wie was two bogeys away from that ignominious score.

"I don't think about [shooting] 88," she said. "I mean, that's just ridiculous."

Wie's troubles were compounded when her playing partners in a pro-am event on Monday at Bulle Rock lodged a complaint, prompting LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens to meet with Wie's father, B.J., and agent, Greg Nared.

Although the nature of the dispute was unclear, Wie was adamant she had been cooperative with her playing partners.

"I think it was very insulting because I tried my best," she said.

Wie, who earned close to $20 million in 2006 from endorsements, earnings and appearance money overseas, has struggled since tying for fifth place at last year's LPGA Championship.

CARIBBEANS DEPRESSED, NOT ENTHUSED BY CRICKET WORLD CUP

It should have put the calypso back in Caribbean cricket, celebrating the sport by bringing the game's biggest one-day tournament to countries that know how to throw a party.

Instead, they're despressed from Jamaica to Guyana and from Antigua to St. Kitts. They're fed up with everything from big business interests squashing the spontaneous fun to the lousy performances of the West Indies team and to the mysterious death of Pakistan's English coach Bob Woolmer hours after his team was eliminated in the qualifying round.

The Cricket World Cup, which still has more than three weeks to run, is playing out in grounds where the concrete is still drying, often three-quarters empty and in cities where the populations say they have been promised economic returns in return for sponsoring major building works for stadia and infrastructure.

Most critics have pointed the finger of blame at cricket's administrators.

"The International Cricket Council is ... about making money, having rules, and siding with narrow commercial interests even at the expense of basic human decency, let alone local color. The game's bosses have wrecked their own party with their greed." respected cricket journalist and former Wisden Cricketers' Almanack editor Tim de Lisle wrote.

The ICC has not been willing to address the issues. Chief executive Malcolm Speed, touring media facilities at Guyana's new Providence Stadium, was asked about the problems, but replied: "let's concentrate on watching the cricket shall we?"

Ticket prices as high as US$100, in countries where that kind of money is far out of the reach of ordinary people, have caused outrage. Locals have also been annoyed by rules that mean they cannot walk to the cricket, instead having to take taxis and buses.

Once in the grounds, impromptu party stands that blare out dance music in between overs have been banned and replaced with organized and sanitized versions.

New grounds have been built in Jamaica, Antigua and Guyana to replace crumbling ones that may not have all mod cons but which have made West Indies cricket famous for years. The Bourda in central Georgetown is now a sad relic of its glorious past, while visitors to the gleaming new stadium face a long walk.

"Cricket was always an urban pastime in the West Indies, but the new stadia have changed all that," said former England captain Mike Atherton, a television commentator at the tournament.

Former pace bowler Curtley Ambrose said he felt the ICC had removed the local flavor from the tournament.

"To be hosting the World Cup should be something special. We are a small nation and we should feel proud. In terms of a West Indian flavor, we are used to the music and the cooking under the stands. The prices are ridiculous. In these hard times, it's crazy to ask people to pay 100 U.S. dollars."

In a region where cricket is under constant threat from other sports, fans have voted with their feet and stayed away in big numbers. The shock elimination of cricket giants India and Pakistan was a shock to organizers. Thousands of cricket lovers from the two countries had been expected to fill hotel rooms throughout the region.

Now, home owners who said they redecorated their houses to let them to cricket tourists are complaining they have thrown away the money.

The performance of the West Indies team has added to the general depression.

At their best, Caribbean cricketers set the world on fire, but those days seem to have gone. Now the team appears to be a squabbling travesty of its one-time greatness, split down national lines.

The public has sensed the mood and has not even packed stadia for West Indies matches. Just over half the tickets were sold for West Indies' match against the mighty Australians last week.

Captain Brian Lara was mystified.

"The crowd was very disappointing," said Lara, who top-scored with 77. "You sit back and think every game that West Indies play you expect a full house."

That was the case at the old Recreation Ground situated in the center of Antigua's capital St. John's. While a full crowd there watched Lara score his test record 400 not out against England in 2004, his efforts Wednesday were played out in front of three banks of totally empty temporary seating.

"I don't know what to put my finger upon as the problem," Lara said. "We just focus on the cricket and hope people do come out."

Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo leapt to the defense of the World Cup in a televised interview with veteran Caribbean cricket commentator Tony Cozier. "I think people have low expectations of us but we managed to confound all of those who did not expect us to be ready."

He said the ICC had asked Guyana to find 200 volunteers for the event and more than 1,000 had come forward.