The greed principle: when making up the numbers makes an earn

LET'S talk about money. Loads and loads of the wrinkly stuff that philanthropic Sir Hamish gifted to hawkers and hongs alike last week.

Sport at the highest level is awash in a pool of money. In turn, the pool is infested with 10 per cent types eager to cash in on other people's talent.

Superstar sportsmen arrive at tournaments with an entourage of agents, accountants, managers, image consultants, and even coaches, in tow. Their raison d'etre is quite simple, to make millions for the boss while he can still serve at 100 kph plus, putt with profitable precision or run the 100 metres quicker than you can say ''I knew that Ben Johnson guy had to be on drugs''.

Top-bracket performers don't rely on prize money to fuel this zippy money-making machine. Endorsement dosh, promotional cash and, the easiest buck accruer of them all, appearance fees account for the majority of their swag.

Sporting bodies, tournament organisers, sponsors and the majority of sportsmen regard appearance money as the bete noire of the golf, tennis and athletic circuits. It's distasteful in the extreme to pocket thousands of dollars just to show up at an event but those ranked in the top 10 do it all the time and the bubbling-unders grab whatever they can whenever they can.

Everyone is coy about revealing details about how much the likes of Greg Norman (the 1993 British Open win increased his value overnight), Andre Agassi (a Wimbledon champion can name his price) and Linford Christie (striking gold at the Olympics means just that) actually insist upon to parade their talents but you can be sure it's never less than six figures US.

The Salem Open in Hong Kong has been a lucrative stop for leading players over the past couple of years. The sponsors did not receive much change from US$500,000 to lure Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang last year and the latter has increased the ante to show up at next month's event.