Cape Town (South Africa), Mar. 16 : Australia will play South Africa every summer under plans being negotiated by the two cricket boards, but in future the visitors will never be seen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day.

The teams will play a three-Test series in one country one year and a one-day series in the alternate country the next, the Daily Telegraph reports.

South Africa''s desire to host cricket on Boxing Day every second year has been an issue in the discussions and means it will almost be impossible to schedule four Test series.

Cape Town (South Africa), Mar.16 : Victorian leg spinner Bryce McGain could make his Test match debut in South Africa in Cape Town on Thursday.

The Newlands pitch is traditionally flat and turns, the series is in the bag and there is talk the side needs to see how McGain bowls before the Ashes.

However, McGain, who turns 37 next week, is not confident about finding a place in the side.

"I think with a winning team at the moment and clinching a series win (it is not likely)" McGain said.

Johannesburg  - The wife of South Africa's newly appointed Intelligence Minister Siyabonga Cwele is being investigated for international drug trafficking following the arrest of an alleged South African drug mule in Brazil, a Johannesburg-based newspaper reported Sunday.

The Sunday Times newspaper said Sheryl Cwele has been linked directly to the unemployed 31-year-old mother who was arrested in Sao Paulo in June 13, 2008 when a
9-kilo block of raw cocaine was found in her suitcase while en route to Johannesburg.

She is being held in Brazil's Penitenciaria Feminina Da Capital prison, awaiting charges.

Cape Town (South Africa), Mar. 15 : Australia’s latest batting sensation, opener Phil Hughes, prefers to be called Phillip rather than Phil in print.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, this seemed a bizarre request, given Hughes - unshaven, a fan of shorts and thongs, the son of a banana farmer, vertically challenged, and a country bumpkin to the bone.

But, it seems, he is about as prim and proper as a stubbie-holder.

Johannesburg  - The filmaker who will direct the biopic of former South African president Nelson Mandela has described his recent meeting with the anti-apartheid icon as "inspirational."

British director Tom Hooper, who will direct the film adaptation of Mandela's best-selling autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and the film's South African producer Anant Singh met the 90-year-old anti-apartheid icon in Johannesburg last week, Singh's company said in a statement Friday.

Johannesburg - Over 8,000 firearms have gone missing over the past three years from South African police supplies, the government revealed in parliament this week according to the South African Press Association (SAPA).

In response to a question from the opposition, the ministry for safety and security said police had lost, stolen or misplaced 8,286 pistols, shotguns, rifles and revolvers, SAPA reported.

Of these, under 900 had been recovered.