Rugby South Australia "has confirmed it will bid for a team in the inaugural National Rugby Championship starting in August." South Australia "was among the 41 expressions of interest received by the Australian Rugby Union and tenders for a spot in the new league close on Friday" (THE ADVERTISER, 2/12). ... Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone is to offer a €1M ($1.37M) reward to "anyone who provides evidence that teams are breaking" the sport's $200M-a-year "spending cap." In December, motorsports governing body FIA announced that "budgets will be limited from 2015 to curb the teams' high-octane splurging and make the sport more financially sustainable." Ecclestone: "The plan under consideration is to give €1 million to any whistleblower whose knowledge is proved to be accurate. We will then say to the team that the following year you will lose three of the maximum points you have scored. Then let's see if they want to cheat" (EXPRESS, 2/9). ... Cycling Independent Reform Commission Chair Dick Marty appealed on Tuesday for anyone with information which could help his commission understand cycling's doping past to come forward. Marty: "The primary purpose of our investigation is not to punish doping offenders but to learn from the past so we can help ensure a better future for cycling. We will treat all witnesses fairly and so I urge anyone in the cycling community with information that can help our investigation to come forward" (UCI). ... All the member nations of the Int'l Cricket Council have "pledged to honour bilateral commitments until 2020 despite the radical reforms approved" at the exec board meeting in Singapore last weekend. A Pakistan Cricket Board official said that "though under the reforms pushed by India, Australia and England the Future Tours Program (FTP) would not be run by the ICC" from '15 onward, member countries had "pledged to honour bilateral series with each other" until '20 (PTI, 2/11).
