After watching the incident from halfway around the world, Cameron Smith didn't mince words when asked for his reaction to Patrick Reed's rules infraction at the Hero World Challenge.

Smith was busy competing in the Australian Open when Reed was docked two shots during Friday's third round in the Bahamas for improving his lie by moving sand behind his ball during two practice swings. The penalty proved consequential, as Reed finished the tournament exactly two shots behind winner Henrik Stenson.

Reed told reporters that he believed a different camera angle might have exonerated him, and Smith offered a colorful reaction when speaking with reporters in Sydney.

"If you make a mistake maybe once, you could maybe understand but to give a bit of a bulls--- response like the camera angle ... that's pretty up there (inexcusable)," Smith told the AAP.

Smith will make his Presidents Cup debut next week at Royal Melbourne against an American team that will feature Reed, and he becomes the second International player to weigh in on the incident. Fellow Aussie Marc Leishman told reporters that Reed has "definitely opened the door" to some fan vitriol next week at Royal Melbourne and has "brought it on himself," a sentiment that Presidents Cup rookie Smith echoed.

"I don't have any sympathy for anyone that cheats. I hope the crowd absolutely gives it to not only him, but everyone (on the American team) next week," Smith said. "I know Pat pretty good and he's always been nice to me, so I don't want to say anything bad about him. But anyone's cheating the rules, I'm not up for that."

Reed has often embraced the role of villain in away team matches before, and he told reporters in the Bahamas that he's ready for whatever may come his way in Melbourne.

"There's not really anything that's going to be said or done that's going to really derail me at the end of the day when I go out there to play golf, especially next week," Reed said. "I'm playing with my team and for the whole country, and at the end of the day nothing's going to get in my way."

West Indies choose to bowl v India

Kieron Pollard called correctly at the toss in Thiruvananthapuram to give his side a shot at chasing down a total with possible dew to contend with when India bowl in the night. The visitors made one change to the XI that lost the first game, bringing in Nicholas Pooran to replace Denesh Ramdin.

Expecting some turn from a surface "drier" than the usual Trivandrum one, India stuck with their spinners, making no change to their XI. It meant disappointment for the capacity crowd who were hoping their local player Sanju Samson might make his international comeback.

India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt.), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

West Indies 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Brandon King, 4 Shimron Hetmyer, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Kieron Pollard (capt.), 7 Jason Holder, 8 Khary Pierre, 9 Kesrick Williams, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Hayden Walsh

Faf du Plessis, South Africa's captain, has called on South Africa's administrators to shift their focus away from the current crises and onto the national team as they prepare for a home series against England.

Speaking after his team, Paarl Rocks, secured a home final at the Mzansi Super League (MSL), two days after CSA CEO Thabang Moroe was suspended and less than 24 hours after it was all but confirmed that former captain Graeme Smith will take over as director of cricket, du Plessis asked for plans to be put in place speedily to ensure the team is ready for their next on-field challenge.

ALSO READ: Crisis in South African cricket - full coverage

"Obviously a lot has happened but now it's a new start," du Plessis said. "There's not much time before the English series so now it's about putting our focus back on to the team, making sure that the Test team gets all the things that are required for us to be successful.

"It's been a little bit on pause the last two or three weeks which is already too late, so we need to make sure in the next week things will start unfolding to make sure the Test team gets the most attention. The last two weeks there hasn't been much attention on that so that is what we will try and drive over the next week."

The most immediate concerns are appointment of a selection panel to pick the squad that will face England, who named their touring party on Saturday, and the naming of support staff to assist interim team director Enoch Nkwe, who looks set to stay in his role. South Africa will also name two invitation teams to play against England in warm-up games, which may inform their final selection, as well as keep an eye on a round of first-class matches that begins on December 19 and assess injuries. Opening batsmen Aiden Markram, who broke his wrist in India, is the biggest doubt but has begun training with the Rocks in a bid to be ready for the Boxing Day Test.

Very little attention has been paid to his, or anyone else's readiness, as CSA attempted to put out fires on multiple fronts over the last two weeks, ranging from disputes with the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA), the suspension of seven members of staff, the resignations of three independent board members and the loss of a major sponsor. After a special meeting of the board on Saturday, CSA resolved to repair its relationship with SACA and hold independent disciplinary proceedings for those staff who have been sanctioned.

However, CSA did not disband the board or remove president Chris Nenzani, something which remains a concern for several stakeholders including SACA, whose outgoing CEO Tony Irish was "appalled" at developments. Irish tweeted that the board and president had taken "no responsibility for cricket's biggest crisis" and are "now clinging to power".

Rather than get drawn into the matter, du Plessis said he just wants to see cricket take centre stage again. "Now it's about moving forward. I am a firm believer that it's time for us to look ahead from all this crap that's been happening behind the scenes. It's about making sure that the players are focused on the cricket side of things," he said.

Du Plessis also offered to be a buffer between the players and administrators as long as it allowed plans for England to proceed swiftly. "The players have got absolutely nothing to do with what's happening behind the scenes. It's important to separate that from a player point of view and if it needs me to be dealing with some of these things, then that's OK. It's about getting focus on what's really important now which is a Test series against England. As I said before, it's already a little bit 99 [last-minute] and things haven't happened as they should have but now we can start getting things on the right track."

As part of that effort, CSA also announced Dr Jacques Faul as interim CEO on Saturday. Du Plessis, who has worked under Faul during his first stint as acting CEO in 2012 and at the Titans franchise, believes he is the right man for the job. "Jacques is obviously a very experienced CEO, a doctor, so I am sure he is pretty clever," du Plessis said. "It's about experience; getting people in that can take this great game of ours on the right track again."

And so, despite the many issues South African cricket faces, du Plessis is hopeful South African cricket can get back on track. "There's too much negative stuff that's happened over the last four or five weeks and our cricket is too strong to have so many issues all the time. We are too proud a cricketing nation to be talking about this stuff all the time. The attention needs to be on the cricket and making sure we will build ourselves as a team and ourselves as an organisation to be great again."

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said a man was arrested for allegedly making racist gestures during the Premier League clash between Manchester City and Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

A video circulating on social media after the match appeared to show a supporter aiming racist abuse at United midfielder Fred, and the Brazil international told ESPN Brasil he blamed the "backward society" for the incident.

City released a statement in which they announced they would launch an investigation into the incident, and United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said it was "unacceptable."

"A man has been arrested after a video posted on social media showed a supporter making racist gestures at the Manchester City vs. Manchester United match at the Etihad Stadium yesterday," a GMP statement released on Sunday read.

"At around 6.55 p.m. [GMT] on Saturday Dec. 7 2019 police were called to a report of a supporter making alleged racist gestures and sounds towards players during the Manchester City and Manchester United derby.

"A 41-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order and remains in custody for questioning."

Superintendent Chris Hill of the City of Manchester Division said: "I would like to thank the public for their ongoing support with this incident.

"Racism of any kind has no place in football or our society and I hope this arrest shows that we are taking this matter extremely seriously.

"We will continue to work with Manchester City and Manchester United Football clubs on this incident and will investigate any other lines of enquiries."

United beat City 2-1 with goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial before Nicolas Otamendi pulled one back late on for the hosts.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Johnny Gilbertson survived an ailing engine and late race challenge by Troy DeCaire to win the BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series season finale Saturday at 417 Speedway.

It was Gilbertson’s first BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series victory of the season.

Gilbertson took command of the race from the start when he beat polesitter L.J. Grimm into the first corner to assume the lead. Gilbertson began to build up a sizeable lead by the halfway point. In typical DeCaire fashion, he slowly began to close on Gilbertson as the race was winding down, with Joey Aguilar following DeCaire patiently.

With five laps remaining, DeCaire made his move, diving under Gilbertson as the duo exited turn two, making contact with each other. The caution flag immediately waved for the stalled car of Daniel Miller.

The cars lined up side-by-side for the restart. When the race resumed Gilbertson took command of the event once again going the final five laps uncontested. In victory lane Gilbertson revealed he had an ailing engine late in the race. DeCaire damaged the front-end suspension of his car in the late-race incident with Gilbertson and could not challenge Gilbertson on the restart.

“The motor was going south on me that last restart and I kinda thought it was over,” explained Gilbertson. “I drove it into turn one and two without touching the break and kinda pretended I was at East Bay Raceway Park. I kept enough momentum I guess and held on for five (laps).”

The win was the second consecutive in the season finale for Gilbertson at 417 Speedway, where clinched the 2018 series title one year ago.

“I think we have a pretty good package here. We’ve been pretty good every time we’ve come here. I think we’ve found something I can be consistent with. I just love coming here. It’s a good Florida track,” concluded Gilbertson.

Following Gilbertson were DeCaire, Aguilar, Clayton Donaldson and Grimm.

With his second-place finish, DeCaire secured his first BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series championship and collected 10 wins in 2019. Ken and Theressa Statham claimed the BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series car owner’s championship.

The finish:

Johnny Gilbertson, Troy DeCaire, Joey Aguilar, Clayton Donaldson, L.J. Grimm, Garrett Green, Tommy Nichols, Travis Bliemeister, Gary Wiggins, Ty DeCaire, Scotty Adema, Ryan Adema, Daniel Miller, Willie Henson, Phil haddad, Chaz Hambling.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have said a man has been arrested for making alleged racist gestures during the Premier League clash between Manchester City and Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

A video circulating on social media after the match appeared to show a supporter aiming racist abuse at United midfielder Fred and the Brazil international told ESPN Brasil he blamed the "backward society" for the incident.

City released a statement in which they announced they would launch an investigation into the incident, and United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said it was "unacceptable."

"A man has been arrested after a video posted on social media showed a supporter making racist gestures at the Manchester City vs. Manchester United match at the Etihad Stadium yesterday," a GMP statement released on Sunday read.

"At around 6.55 p.m. [GMT] on Saturday Dec. 7 2019 police were called to a report of a supporter making alleged racist gestures and sounds towards players during the Manchester City and Manchester United derby.

"A 41-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order and remains in custody for questioning."

Superintendent Chris Hill of the City of Manchester Division said: "I would like to thank the public for their ongoing support with this incident.

"Racism of any kind has no place in football or our society and I hope this arrest shows that we are taking this matter extremely seriously.

"We will continue to work with Manchester City and Manchester United Football clubs on this incident and will investigate any other lines of enquiries."

United beat City 2-1 with goals from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial before Nicolas Otamendi pulled one back late on for the hosts.

Tshwane Spartans v Cape Town Blitz - match abandoned without a ball bowled

Durban Heat face a nervous wait on the weather in their bid to reach the play-offs of the Mzansi Super League after Tshwane Spartans' game against Cape Town Blitz was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Sunday.

The Heat sit fourth in the points table ahead of the final game of the group stage on Tuesday, needing a win against rock-bottom Jozi Stars to overtake the Spartans and finish third.

But the forecast is again poor in Johannesburg, meaning Tuesday's game set to be rain-affected. A fifth no-result of the season would leave the Heat a single point behind the Spartans.

Paarl Rocks qualified to the final by beating Nelson Mandela Bay Giants on Sunday, with the two teams finishing level on 27 points each, but the Rocks prevailing thanks to their superior head-to-head record.

That means the Giants will host Friday's qualifier, with the winner of that game qualifying for Monday's final in Paarl.

Both the Spartans and the Heat have suffered badly from heavy rainfall throughout the tournament. Five of the Spartans' ten group games were washed out, including four of their five games at Centurion, while four of the Heat's nine games thus far have been no-results.

Permutations

Paarl Rocks - finished top, qualified for home final
Nelson Mandela Bay Giants - finished second, through to home qualifier
Tshwane Spartans - will finish third and go through to qualifier unless Heat beat Stars
Durban Heat - will finish fourth and be knocked out unless they beat Stars
Cape Town Blitz - finished fifth
Jozi Stars - finished last

Points table