Travel agents are claiming that high costs and ticket chaos are stopping thousands of rugby fans going to Australia for next month’s Rugby World Cup. The 12 licensed travel agents in Britain estimate that business is down 20% while figures from South Africa are 50% down.

New Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq has insisted there was nothing sinister behind the sudden resignation of previous incumbent Rashid Latif ahead of the crucial series against South Africa. ”I assure everyone there was no controversy behind Latif’s resignation,” Inzamam said.

Around west London, Chelsea fans are talking up the Blues’ chances of winning the Premier League. Fresh from pounding Wolverhampton 5-0 last week in a league match, the Blues are home to Aston Villa on Saturday and challenging Arsenal and Manchester United at the top of the standings.

For better or worse, South Africa fly off to Pakistan this weekend, a week behind schedule, but with perhaps a slightly less taxing itinerary ahead of them. The United Cricket Board has taken some stick this week for initially calling off the tour. In some respects the criticism was misguided.

A massive earthquake measuring 8,0 on the Richter scale rocked northern Japan on Friday, injuring 236 and causing 40 000 people to evacuate, officials and news reports said. The quake, the strongest to hit Japan in almost nine years, occurred 750 kilometres north of Tokyo.

Vodafone has warned the England and Wales Cricket Board that its £3-million (about R35-million) a year sponsorship of the game could be jeopardised if England tour Zimbabwe next autumn.

My understanding of constitutional law from my days at the University of Zimbabwe was that not all law enacted by Parliament is good law. It was with this insight that those freedom fighters who represented Zimbabweans’ interests at the Lancaster House talks extracted a guarantee that all laws of Zimbabwe from that day on (1980) would not infringe the fundamental rights they had fought for.

There were mixed reactions on Thursday to the release of the report of the independent committee of inquiry into farm attacks. The report — released by senior police officers at Parliament — found that the attacks were not racially motivated, and that pure criminal intent was behind them.