Williams Scarred by Cronje Scandal

Henry Williams has told BBC Radio 5 live that his involvement in the Hansie Cronje cricket match-fixing scandal of 2000 has left a "permanent scar".

Williams, who played seven one-day internationals for South Africa, took around £10,000 from ex-captain Cronje to play badly against India in 2000.

"You can't forget things in life, it's left a permanent scar," said Williams, 44, who was banned for six months.

Cronje got a life ban for admitting to receiving £100,000 from bookmakers.

Fellow South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs was given a six-month ban for his part in the scandal.

The week marks the 10th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Cronje.

"He [Cronje] never said, 'Sorry for what I did to harm you', or anything," added Williams. "He's dead now and he still worries me.

"When they [acquaintances] sit with friends and have parties they will talk about it and say, 'There's that cheat walking'. You can feel people talking about you behind your back."

Meanwhile, former South Africa international Clive Rice said that more measures had to be put in place to prevent match-fixing scandals from happening.

"I think players need protecting," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"A youngster coming through may not have wealthy parents. They suddenly have big carrots being dangled in front of them. They have to know to not get involved."

Parker Spurs Game 2 Thunder

Tony Parker scored 34 points, Manu Ginobili added 20 and the Spurs stayed perfect in the playoffs with a 120-111 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

The Spurs set an NBA record with their 20th consecutive victory bridging the regular season and the playoffs. They came in sharing the longest such streak with the 2000-01 Lakers, who won 19 straight before losing to Philadelphia in the first game of the finals.

Those Lakers went on to win the championship and there's no reason yet to think the Spurs won't do the same. They put on an offensive clinic for three quarters, shooting 60 percent from the field and leading by as many as 22 points in the third quarter.

Parker finished with eight of the Spurs' 27 assists, and San Antonio went 11 for 26 from 3-point range. The Spurs went only 10-for-23 from the field in the fourth quarter and still shot 55 percent for the game.

"Sometimes, it's exactly as we drew it," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the offense. "Other times, it's a miracle, and that's the truth. It doesn't always go exactly the way you planned. Good players get it done."

The Thunder made a late surge to get within six points, but Parker, Ginobili and Tim Duncan helped San Antonio finish off the Thunder for a 2-0 lead heading into Game 3 Thursday night in Oklahoma City.

Kevin Durant had 31 points and James Harden rebounded from a rough Game 1 to score 30 for the Thunder, who have lost two straight for the first time since early April. Oklahoma City dropped to 15-4 in games after losses this season.

"Our guys played hard," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "Unfortunately, we came away with nothing the last few days."

San Antonio picked up where it left off from the 39-point fourth quarter that turned Game 1 on Sunday. With sharp passes and hot shooting, the Spurs jumped to a 19-9 lead after the Thunder missed six of their first seven shots and had three turnovers in the first 4 minutes.

The Spurs shot 52 percent (12 for 23) in the opening quarter, though, and led 28-22. Durant was on the bench at the start of the second quarter, and Parker and the Spurs put together a 14-4 spurt to stretch the gap to 13 points.

Russell Westbrook hammered Parker's arm on a drive and he crumpled to the court. That didn't faze Parker, who scored the Spurs' next seven points to keep San Antonio rolling.

The Spurs shot 58 percent (22 of 38) and had 13 assists in the first half. They also cut down their turnovers, committing only six in the first half after giving away 14 in the first two quarters of Game 1.

"You never go out and say, `We're going to start out fast," Popovich said. "You don't know what is going to happen. You just want your team to be aggressive. Good teams are aggressive and it is, it's a matter of making shots or not making shots."

The Spurs resumed picking apart Oklahoma City's defense with precision passes after the break, scoring on five straight possessions. San Antonio was shooting 63 percent from the field and 64 percent from 3-point range at one point (7 for 11).

The biggest cheer from the crowd came after Ginobili flipped a behind-the-back pass to Parker in the corner for another 3 and the lead ballooned to 78-58.

Late in the third quarter, the Thunder began intentionally fouling Tiago Splitter, a 32 percent free-throw shooter during the playoffs.

That backfired, too. Splitter went 5 for 10 over a 54-second span before Popovich replaced him with Duncan, and Oklahoma City trailed by the same margin -- 16 -- that it did when Brooks called for the "Hack-a-Splitter" strategy.

It may not have showed on the scoreboard, but the Spurs seemed to lose their edge after that.

"There's a reason why you do it, to kill the rhythm," Parker said. "I think it got us out of our rhythm."

Parker returned with 10:58 left and San Antonio leading 92-78, but he was shaky on offense for the first time. Gary Neal promptly curled around a screen and swished a 3-pointer, the Spurs' 10th of the game.

Parker, Ginobili and Duncan were on the court together at the 8-minute mark, after the Thunder cut the deficit to eight. Ginobili's floater in the lane was only the Spurs' third field goal of the fourth quarter and put San Antonio up 99-89.

The Thunder had the deficit down to six with just over 5 minutes remaining. The Spurs missed 12 of 15 shots during one stretch, but Parker hit an off-balance, high-arcing jumper with 3:39 left for a 107-96 lead and San Antonio controlled the game from there.

At least now, the Thunder get to return home, where they went 26-7 in the regular season. But only 14 teams in NBA playoff history have overcome 2-0 deficits to win series, and the Spurs show no signs of letting the Thunder back in it.

Rangers SFA Challenge Upheld

A judge has ruled that the Scottish Football Association (SFA) acted beyond its powers in imposing a year-long transfer ban on Rangers FC.

The ban was given, along with a fine of £100,000, after the club was charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

Rangers challenged the ban at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, on the grounds it was not one of the sanctions listed in the SFA's own regulations.

Lord Glennie said the ban should be reconsidered by the SFA appeal panel.

Rangers administrators Duff and Phelps said the club's position had been vindicated and that they would study the judgement and consider their course of action.

The SFA said it was surprised by the verdict and would consult its legal advisers.

BBC Scotland has learned that a number of SPL clubs are extremely disappointed with the ruling.

One club chairman said there was an "increased animosity" towards Rangers after they took the case to court.

One of Europe's leading experts in sports law has also told BBC Scotland there could be wider implications for Scottish football.

An SFA disciplinary tribunal originally imposed the fine and placed an embargo on Rangers signing senior players for 12 months in April this year.

The disrepute charge was handed down mainly over the club's failure to pay more than £13m in taxes last season.

That decision was upheld by an SFA appeals tribunal, including the judge Lord Carloway, earlier this month.

The club went to the Court of Session to challenge the decision on the additional transfer ban sanction in a judicial review of the tribunal decision.

Lord Glennie ruled that the SFA appeals tribunal was wrong in holding that it had the power to impose the additional sanction in the case and that in doing so they were acting outside their powers.

The judge set aside the decision and said he would send it back to the SFA appeal tribunal to look at it again in light of his decision.

He said the fact that he had found the extra penalty imposed on Rangers to be outside of the powers available did not necessarily mean the club would escape a lighter punishment.

Lord Glennie said that was a matter for the association.

The judge also rejected an argument made on behalf of the SFA that the correct venue for deciding any dispute was the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Rangers counsel Richard Keen QC, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, told the court: "We are the victim of an unlawful sanction and we have had imposed on us a sanction that the SFA panel had no right to impose."

Mr Keen had argued that the transfer ban was outside its powers and said that under the appropriate rule a fine, suspension and expulsion were available.Original tribunal

Aidan O'Neill QC, for the football authorities, had argued that the tribunal sought to find a sanction which would fit the breach committed.

He said it was clearly thought that the fine was "simply not enough given the gravity of the issues here".

Mr O'Neill said that if their powers of penalty were restricted to sanctions such as suspension or expulsion then suspension would have to be looked at.

He added the current sanction allowed Rangers to continue to trade and play.

Paul Clark, joint administrator with Duff and Phelps, said: "We welcome the decision by Judge Lord Glennie today that vindicates the club's position that the original SFA judicial panel tribunal and the appellate tribunal acted beyond their powers in imposing a transfer embargo on the club.

He added: "Both we, and the SFA, will have to study the full ramifications of the judgment when it is published and either side has 21 days in which to decide the next course of action or whether they wish to appeal."

The decision now places Rangers on a possible collision course with football's governing bodies.

Prior to the court's decision, the world governing body Fifa said: "Fifa will ask the member association (SFA) to take action so that the club withdraws its request from the ordinary courts.

"Fifa will closely monitor the situation so that the issue is resolved as fast as possible."

In an interview with Newsnight Scotland, Dr Gregory Ioannidis, who has represented a number of clubs at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, warned the consequences of the judge's ruling could be damaging for Scottish football.

He said: "If the Scottish Football Association decides to not take action against Rangers, in relation to Rangers submitting the application to the Court of Session, then Fifa can actually penalise the SFA, and the individual club, and the national team of Scotland, and impose an international ban on all of them."

PUMA Consider Lisbon Plan

With only 65 nautical miles separating first and last in the Leg 7 race to Lisbon, second place PUMA are asking should they play the offensive or defensive game as the pressure mounts over the remaining 500 nm to Lisbon.

Overnight, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG remained about 30 nm behind longstanding leaders Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, while Groupama held third place and Team Telefónica jumped ahead of CAMPER to claim fourth.

PUMA Media Crew Member Amory Ross said nerves were running high with the team realising that others, including Telefóinca, Groupama, CAMPER and Sanya, were “cutting the corner” to Lisbon.

But, with Abu Dhabi just 29 nm ahead at 0400 UTC, the PUMA crew were torn between where they should be focusing their attention - - ahead, or behind.

The situation is only complicated by the long-dreaded ridge that lies about 100 miles off Lisbon’s coast, which will bring the fleet to a screeching halt and potentially cause chaos amongst the leg standings, Ross said.

“Abu Dhabi has always been in our sights, but we’re clearly more invested in the guys nibbling at our tail; there is more to lose against them than there is to gain against Abu Dhabi.

“The question remains: do we approach the remaining miles on the defensive or on the offensive?

“Some of the trailing boats appear to be cutting the corner to Lisbon, sailing fewer miles certainly has its merits, but Tom (Addis) is confident in our approach to this windless ridge and that deserves proper consideration, too.”

Meanwhile, on board CAMPER the team were feeling a little robbed having been knocked to fifth place by overall race leaders Team Telefónica at 1900 UTC.

Skipper Chris Nicholson said it was now a case of working hard to be close to the fleet when they “park up” in the ridge, and then negotiating whether to take a north or south route around those ahead.

“We have got a lot of work to do,’’ Nicholson said. “It feels wrong for us to still end up in fifth spot so we need to pull something out of the bag.”

Liverpool Have New King - Rodgers

On Sunday May 13 Liverpool played Swansea City, in the last fixture of the Premier League season, at the Liberty Stadium with Kenny Dalglish at the helm - and Brendan Rodgers on the home bench.

The home side won the match 1-0.

Within hours of the final whistle Dalglish was off down thew M4 and catching a flight to the United States to meet Liverpool's owner, John W Henry, and Fenway Sports Management to assess the season end - and make plans for the new season.

The answer was simple from the US owners, the future did not include Dalglish.

Unfortunately under his rule club fell to eighth place in the Premier league table, miss out Champions League football in 2013, lost the FA Cup - with the Carling Cup the only silverware to show for the money spent and effort exerted.

Legend or not, Kenny's number was up and time, it seems, waits for no manager.

Less than a month later it is Rodgers travelling along the M5 to Liverpool with a three year deal in place, according to BBC Sport, to take charge of the Anfield club. Roger is the new crown prince.

It seems the king is dead, so long live the king!

Only two years ago Rodgers took over as manager of the Swans following Paulo Sousa's departure to Leicester City.

Originally from Carnlough in Northern Ireland, Rogers retired as a professional footballer with Reading at the age of 20 due to injury, but remained at the club and in time appointed as youth team coach before.

Jose Mourinho made him team manager at Chelsea in 2004 and two years later he was promoted to reserve team boss at Stamford Bridge before taking over as Watford manager in November 2008.

His stay at Vicarage Road was brief, however, as he returned to Reading to replace Steve Coppell as manager in June 2009.

But, following a difficult start where he was forced to sell some of the club's top players after their exit from the Premier League, he left the Championship club by mutual consent in December 2009.

He was back in management seven months later as he headed to the Liberty Stadium. Sharing the same footballing philosophy as the Swans, it proved a perfect match.

Brendan tempted Scott Sinclair away from former club Chelsea while another Chelsea youngster Fabio Borini made a massive impact after joining on loan later in the season.

They proved shrewd signings as in his first full season as manager, Brendan led the Swans into the Premier League via the play-offs thanks to a Wembley win against former employers Reading.

In doing so, Brendan became the first manager in the club's proud history to guide the Swans to the Premier League.

Rodgers has said in the recent past: “My biggest influence has been Spanish and Dutch football, that Total Football idea. Rodgers’ father enjoyed Brazilian style, he loved gifted players and he was a big influence on the Swans boss.

"The British type of football never suited me as a player. It was very much smash it up the pitch and play the percentages. The only percentage I was interested in was possession and I didn't think it was rocket science. If we have the ball, you can't score, no matter how big or strong you are. I've always worked off that.”

Amen to that.....