Just for once, ethics, not sponsors’ millions, have spoken with the loudest voice in sport | Tim Adams

What's on the sporting calendar this week? The same as last - ethical conflicts

You can't put a price on principles, but there have always been plenty of people willing to try. In the 1980s, when the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa was holding relatively firm, the casino operators of Sun City would try to lure global sports stars to play one-off exhibition matches that broke the ban. John McEnroe, then at the height of his rebellious powers, turned down one such pay cheque, aged 24, with the memorable observation that I've got better ways of earning a million bucks." In the context of the money commanded by today's stars, the bribe offered to McEnroe may sound trivial; it's worth remembering that in 1983 the single million-dollar evening's work would have been 10 times what he banked for winning that year's Wimbledon.

There were, of course, plenty of players willing to take the cash - McEnroe's rivals, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, went for $400,000 and $300,000 respectively. Arthur Ashe, the black American tennis legend and anti-apartheid campaigner, used to try to dissuade anyone offered what he called Sun City's guilt premium". One group were always the hardest to convince, Ashe recalled: Golfers have their heads in the sand, all of 'em. They're all 5ft 11, blond, rightwing republicans. They don't give a damn."