The PGA Tour's top golfers will tee off Thursday at the 2023 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. The RBC Heritage 2023 field is loaded with major champions, including Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas. In total, seven of the top 10 golfers in the world will compete at Harbour Town, with 500 FedEx Cup points going to the winner. 

The hunted becomes the hunter as former champion Israel Adesanya runs it back against Alex Pereira, the man who dethroned him for the middleweight title at UFC 287 in Miami on Saturday night (Sunday morning SA time).

The Miami-Dade Arena will come unglued when Miami’s favourite son Jorge Masvidal returns to battle Gilbert Burns in a pivotal welterweight bout in the co-main event. 

A second showdown in the 170-pound division will see Kevin Holland square off against Santiago Ponzinibbio while there are two bantamweight bangers on deck as Rob Font faces Adrian Yanez and prodigy Raul Rosas Jr collides with Christian Rodriguez.

Host Carl Lewis and coach and analyst Grant de Smidt preview matchweek 30 in the Premier League with Liverpool v Arsenal the headline match in a weekend where relegation, European spots and of course the title race is all front and centre - there is a lot to play for.

Listen to our comprehensive betting preview of every match union in the Premier League.

Host Carl Lewis chats with the sports editor at the Rapport, Tinus van Staden, about why South Africa plays such little test cricket and the factors behind this shift in global cricket.

If Gerald Coetzee - the Proteas' new star bowler - plays 50 tests, he will take 450 wickets, a Protea supporter recently wrote on Twitter. "We will have to manage him well if he wants to have a career of 25 years," someone snaps back. Tongue-in-cheek, of course. Very hyperbolic. Nobody expects Cricket South Africa to manage any player well! But on a serious note: Due to the stepchild status that Test cricket enjoys these days, a quarter-century career is about what it takes for a player to amass significant Test figures (albeit 450 wickets in 50 Tests – nine per Test! – practically impossible). The 22-year-old Coetzee will never achieve superstar statistics. It's not his fault. He has a truckload of talent - a fast bowler with speed, aggression, natural swing and sustainable bowling action. The problem is South Africa no longer plays enough Tests for Coetzee to stand a chance of equaling Dale Steyn's record of 439 Test wickets (in 93 Tests over 15 years). Even the 27-year-old Kagiso Rabada (who has already taken 280 wickets in 60 Tests) may never reach Steyn's figures. And this is a greater injustice because Rabada has the potential to become the country's best yet. In the next four-year cycle - from May 2023 to April 2027 - South Africa will only play in 28 Tests. Only in 2026 again in a series of more than two tests, when England comes here for three matches. Test famine compared to the red-ball festivities that await the Big Three: 43 for England, 40 for Australia and 38 for India. Five-Test series between these countries abound.

Zach Lowy covers Europe's top 5 leagues with some of the best football writers from around the world.

It’s Masters week, the unofficial start of golf season — at least for those of us in the northern parts of the country.

The Masters is the first major of the golf season and arguably the best. Augusta National is a special place — a visually stunning course that tests the mettle of the best players in the world. Augusta requires precision approach shots and a deft touch on pitches and chips. Its lightning-fast greens can make even the best putters in the world look like amateurs.

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, won his first major at Augusta last year and is among the betting favorites this week, along with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.

As if the world’s greatest golfers taking on arguably the world’s greatest course wasn’t enough, we get some extra spice with some of the prodigal sons of the LIV Tour joining their former colleagues in this week’s field. Players in the Saudi-backed LIV Tour have been banned from playing in PGA Tour events, but they are welcome at Augusta, which means we’ll see former Masters champs Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson.

From fireworks to farce, what began at the Australian Grand Prix with illuminating excitement ended with the dampest of squibs. Inevitably, and with what is likely to become a relentless refrain this season, Max Verstappen won for Red Bull in Melbourne but only after a measure of the chaos and confusion that F1 seems exquisitely adept at serving up. Its labyrinthine rulebook once more weighed heavy on the action, informed by the looming spectre of the Abu Dhabi 2021 controversy and an intimation that the demand for entertainment is in the driving seat of decision making. The meeting at Albert Park took a full two and half hours to conclude. Late risers in the UK hoping to catch the final laps over breakfast were doubtless pleased to find that there was still plenty of time left to watch after it was stopped no fewer than three times. Whether they understood what was happening by the end is another question entirely as few it seems in Melbourne had many ideas either, the race concluding in an ignominious fashion, dismissed by drivers as a mess that left even them confused. The second and key stoppage came with four laps to go, to deal with debris after Kevin Magnussen’s Haas clipped the wall at turn two and lost its right rear tyre. A standing restart followed and, with two laps to run, the pinnacle of motor racing descended into bedlam. Six cars were involved in incidents, flying into one another and off the track before the field had managed to reach the end of the first sector of the lap. The red flag was shown once more and those that could return to the pits, only for a further delay of over 30 minutes as the FIA leafed through their regulation documents to work out what should happen next. Time ticked on as the sun sank lower in the sky, the self-proclaimed fastest sport in the world proceeding at a torturous pace and everyone willing these painful final moments to be put out of their misery. Finally, over it was. The pack trotted out for one lap behind the safety car to complete race distance and a bemused Verstappen took the flag from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Host Carl Lewis chats with Rapport sports editor Tinus van Staden about how South African cricketers make money.

If a Protea played in the 2022-23 season in all 38 of the team's matches, (not including “World Cup -tournaments as a top CSA player contract of about R3 million, he will only earn around 4.4 million. Compared to others in the glamour leagues.

Tristan Stubbs was paid 9.2 mill for his contract with the Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
David Million earned 6.2 million for two months with the Gujarat Titans.
Compared to the 4.4 million a “hypothetical” Protea Player with a big national contract and tournament money would earn.

Cricket in SA could soon be dealt a death blow as several Proteas are reportedly expected to leave the game. This follows Quinton de Kock's announcement that he’ll be shelving his test cap.

According to Cricket insiders, several factors are resulting in this drastic move.

But mostly due to the heavy wallets, they could walk away with, playing as “soldiers for hire” in T-20 cricket worldwide.

Cricket SA’s head Pholetsi Moseki and SACA executive Andrew Breetzke both agree that situation is extremely worrying.

CSA insiders say they fear that the top players in the country will be leaving due to the appeal of T-20 league money. According to them the money on offer from CSA is nothing in comparison to leagues worldwide.

Players will start to lose interest in national contracts and why wouldn’t they?

In the SA20 top players earn around R5 million in comparison with national contracts where they’d earn between 1.5 and 3 million rand yearly. And when they get national contracts then they need letters of permission from CSA allowing them to play in leagues worldwide.

So CSA knows they are at a crossroads but there’s not much they can do about it. A CSA source says they simply don’t have the money like Australia, New Zealand, England and India.
But there’s hope that a cash injection from the SA 20 league could make a difference. But sadly it might be too late.

According to Rapport it’s initially expected that CSA will only become profitable in the fifth year. Top players like Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Jordan Hermann and Marco Jansen wil totally be swallowed by the appeal of the T-20 system. (Unless they really want to represent their country) And even then they will have to reach a compromise with CSA to allow them to play in some T-20 matches.

Why would they involve themselves with international cricket where they are also faced with transformation policies while they could earn big money elsewhere?)

In rugby, for instance, private investments play a big role in funding the game but according to Rapport this isn’t a viable option for Cricket SA because of what benefit would it be to a private investor.
The SA20 isn’t completely owned by CSA (CSA 57.7% . Supersport 30% and Indian businessman Sundar Raman 12.5%)

One day cricket is watered down and we are playing less test matches, that’s why CSA can’t be the main sponsor. Compared to SA rugby that earns a highly successful Bok team that has won three world cups with an iconic black captain. (diff between Rugby and Cricket world leagues)

Like David Miller who’ll be playing in Feb and March for the Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Superleague for a salary of around 2.8 million. From April to June he’ll be playing for the Gujarat Titans in the IPL earning 6.2 million. If he plays again in August and September in the Hundreds tournament where he played last year for the Welsh Fire earning 1.5 million. Whereas he could earn about 10.5 million in just three leagues. For four months’ work – and that doesn’t even include the millions he’ll earn in the SA20 league. Compared to what a Protea may earn playing in every match of the current season.

Tournament money for the 2022-23 Proteas season is reportedly as follows. 14 thousand for a T20 match. 31 thousand for a one day match and 100 thousand for a test. Players also earn TV rights money the value of which depends on their national contracts.

In the current season that started on 1 May 2022 ending 31 April, the Protas will play 16 T-20’s, 14 one day matches and eight tests. That excludes last years T20 World cup tournament and this years World Cup tournament in one-day cricket.

Say a player plays in all the matches on a 3 mill per season contract, he would have earned 4.4 mill from his Protea service excluding tv rights. And that’s for a year’s worth of play.

Protea Captain Dean Elgar played 11 tests in 2022. His tournament money would be around 1.1 million. Even with a big national contract he would only have made around 4 million with the Proteas.

Compared to Pretorius’ 4.1 million playing fo the Super Giants in SA20. Or Stubbs that made 9.2 mill by the Sunrisers in SA20. Elgars problem is that he only plays in one format for SA. Recently Elgers said that players should get better salaries because that will be the downfall of the game. 

The rand will always be on the backfoot of the dollar that’s why you can understand why players need to utilize their short careers optimally in test cricket. He’ll be happy if he could help with this situation before he retires from the game.

Host Carl Lewis and coach and analyst Grant de Smidt preview Matchweek 29 of the Premier League.

The English Premier League race is getting more chaotic by the week: Matchweek 28 saw upsets galore and outbursts which led to manager Antonio Conte leaving Tottenham via Ryanair, while the relegation battle is even more interesting (and frightening) for clubs and players alike.

After the international break, fans and punters will be salivating for the return of club football.