CRICKET

Former Proteas star Jonty Rhodes believes that the current South African cricket team’s strength is also its weakness. Rhodes is pleased with the make-up of the South African squad currently in Australia and team management’s decision to pick specialist batmen and bowlers. However, he does feel that picking specialist bowlers means that the South African batting line-up possesses a dangerously long tail.

CRICKET

Former England cricketer Chris Lewis will appear in court on drug smuggling charges on Tuesday after around four kilos of cocaine was seized at London's Gatwick Airport, the Home Office said. Lewis, 40, an all-rounder who played 32 test matches and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested on Monday after arriving on a flight from the Caribbean, the UK Border Agency, a division of the Home Office, said.

RACING

Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has said he is so tied to McLaren that he will never leave the British team. Hamilton, 23, became the youngest driver to win the world title when he snatched fifth place on the final bend of November's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. "I was born and grew up at McLaren. It is my home. Yes, I confirm I will never change team," Hamilton told Tuesday's Italian daily Corriere dalla Sera. McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has had a long-standing relationship with Hamilton and the driver highlighted this as a major reason for his desire to stay at McLaren.

GOLF

Triple major winner Padraig Harrington has been named the European Tour player of the year for the second year in succession. After staging a successful defence of his British Open title in July, Harrington went on to become the first European to win the US PGA Championship since Tommy Armour in 1930. The world number four was the fourth player after Walter Hagen (1924), Nick Price (1994) and Tiger Woods (2000 and 2006) to land the British Open and US PGA Championship back-to-back.

SOCCER

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has rubbished speculation Robbie Keane could be off-loaded in the January transfer window and suggestions he has demanded a huge pay hike in negotiations on a new contract. Benitez has begun negotiations on an extension to his current deal, which expires at the end of next season. But he said reports they had hit a snag over his personal financial demands were wide off the mark.