Sunday Tribune

INJURY TIME

BONUSES WITH SMILE

Credit where it’s due, the SA Football Association paid the national women’s team’s players their R400 000 bonus for winning the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations this week. We’re still a bit muddled about whether the bonuses come out of the prize money pot – because then it’s really not a bonus – but the players seem happy, and indeed, so does Safa. “We’ve honoured the commitment made by the president Danny Jordaan to pay the players R400 000 that they were promised. The 23 players have indeed been paid on Friday,” said Safa’s financial manager Gift Sekonde. “We made the payment with a wide smile.”

LIZ HURLEY

In an extract from his book, Ross Taylor: Black & White, the great New Zealand batter writes about an incident with Shane Warne that underlines how, sometimes, the outcome of a game of cricket really isn’t so important. “There was never a dull moment with Warnie running the show,” Taylor recalled. “After we got humiliated by the Kochi Tuskers – they chased down our miserable total in seven overs – Warnie gave the team an almighty spray. (I didn’t feel it was directed at me because I didn’t play that game.) One of the coaching staff took him aside to let him know he’d gone over the top and probably upset the younger lads. Warnie took it on board and called the team together to apologise. He concluded with, ‘After all, it’s just a game of cricket. Tomorrow morning the sun will rise and I’ll wake up beside Liz Hurley’. Something in those mixed messages must have struck a chord because we blew the Mumbai Indians away in our next game.”

BATHROOM BREAK

So when is a bathroom break in tennis not a bathroom break? Well, apparently, when you don’t use the bathroom, in fact, the toilet. A bizarre conversation took place at the ATP tournament in Montreal, where Norwegian player Casper Ruud, was given a code violation by the umpire, Fergus Murphy.

Ruud understandably, was perplexed.

Ruud: “What, but I used it to change my clothes?”

Murphy: “You have to go to the bathroom as well. That’s the rule,”

Ruud: “But if I need to change my underwear, what do I do? Do it on the court?”

Murphy: “No, no, you can do both. It’s called a bathroom break.”

Ruud: “But if I need a change of clothes, what do I do?”

Murphy: “Yeah, I know that man, but the rule is covered by the bathroom break rule. You can change your clothes, but you have to go to the bathroom when you say you’re going to the bathroom.

Ruud: “But I didn’t say I was going to the bathroom, I said I was going to change my clothes.”

Murphy: “No I heard that.”

Ruud: “My socks, my underwear, my shorts, my T-shirt.”

Murphy: “That is covered by the bathroom break rule.”

Ruud: “Okay, well next time I take it, I’m going to go to the bathroom I just go into the toilet.”

Murphy: You have to go to the bathroom, that’s your business. But when you don’t go I have to give you a warning for not going, that’s why I’m explaining it.”

SPORT

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2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/281848647384111

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