South Africa's sport minister said Tuesday he still wants the country to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games despite a cabinet decision last month to instead spend money on services for the poor.

Fikile Mbalula said he hopes to convince his colleagues in President Jacob Zuma's cabinet to revisit plans for an Olympic bid, which the government vetoed after estimating it would cost $50 million.

Alex McLeish resigned as the manager of Birmingham City on Sunday following their relegation from the Premier League, with the club saying he had told acting chairman Peter Pannu in an e-mail he was leaving the Midlands side.

"Birmingham City Football Club can confirm Alex McLeish has resigned as manager," said a statement on the club's website.

Veteran Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa was given only 10 minutes warning on Friday that he was racing for Sauber as replacement for Mexican rookie Sergio Perez at the Canadian Grand Prix.

De la Rosa, 40, the McLaren team test and reserve driver, was called in when Perez, 21, said he felt sick after driving in Friday morning's free practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Rafael Nadal insists he will be back to peak form and fitness in time for the defense of his Wimbledon title after the exhausted world number one crashed out of Queen's against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Nadal looked a spent force in the final set of his 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-1 quarter-final defeat on Friday as the Spaniard's remarkable run of success over the last five months finally took its toll.

Two leading Formula One team chiefs admitted on Friday that the bungled management of the Bahrain Grand Prix fiasco had damaged the image of their sport.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner and Renault's Eric Boullier both agreed that it was a mistake to reinstate the race - as announced last Friday by the sport's governing body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) - and then call it off for a second time in controversial circumstances.

A repentant and reflective Lewis Hamilton conceded on Thursday that he had suffered a "bad day at the office" in Monaco two weeks ago and had apologized to all concerned.

Now, he said, he wanted to move on, put the affair behind him and do his best for himself and his McLaren team this weekend in the Canadian Grand Prix where he claimed his maiden win 2007 and won again last year.

Arsenal have abandoned efforts to keep skipper Cesc Fabregas who could be set for a return to Spanish giants Barcelona, Spanish sports newspapers said Thursday.

Gunners coach Arsene Wenger has allowed his skipper to leave on condition he does not sign with another English team, the Barcelona-based daily Mundo Deportivo said, quoting a conversation between the two.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has said that he believes the Bahrain Grand Prix will not go ahead as planned on October 30 as the teams and drivers involved did not want to take part.

Ecclestone had been in favor of moving the race to October 30 after the season opener had originally been postponed because of unrest in the country.

Serena Williams will make her return to tennis after missing almost a year with injury and illness as she takes a wild card entry into next week's Eastbourne grass-court tournament, tournament officials said Tuesday.

The 29-year-old one-time world number one who now stands 25th after her months of inactivity, joins her sister Venus in the field at the English south coast beach town.

Lionel Messi and his Argentina team mates will travel to India later this year to take on Venezuela in a friendly designed to boost football on the subcontinent, a report said Tuesday.

The FIFA-sanctioned game is scheduled for September 2 in the eastern city of Kolkata and the Argentinian team will then travel to Bangladesh where they will take on Nigeria, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.