How cricket will be stumped by Beijing

Updated: 17:08 EST, 14 August 2008

The BBC commitment to the London Olympics in 2012 is such that three out of the four channels will be devoted to the Games coverage during the 16 days of competition.

The need to prioritise Olympic sports has been a major factor in the Corporation turning its back on Test cricket for the next four years, much to the dismay of the England Cricket Board, who expected the Beeb at least to make a bid in the recent tender.

Instead the Beeb have bought Formula One and, in the build-up to 2012, will be increasing their coverage of sports that have proved popular with viewers during the Beijing Games.

Already gymnastics, cycling and swimming come into this category and the Beeb's policy will be to concentrate on a few sports rather than covering the more obscure ones despite the wishes of London 2012 organisers.

London chairman Sebastian Coe said he is looking to the Beeb to give a sport such as handball exposure, while the Beeb high command cannot see it attracting enough viewers.

The blanket three-channel Olympic coverage means the Beeb will need a legion of presenters led by Gary Lineker, despite his Beijing absence. Others on the roster will be Adrian Chiles, Gabby Logan, Hazel Irvine, Sue Barker, Rishi Persad, Clare Balding, John Inverdale and Jake Humphrey.

Michael Phelps has won 11 Olympic golds with the chance of three more but that does not make him the greatest Olympian ever, according to Sebastian Coe. His choice is British decathlete Daley Thompson who, like Coe, won golds in 1980 and 1984.

Coe, who missed the Beijing opening ceremony because of his late father Peter's death, revealed on Thursday he never marched in an opening parade. But he will ensure 2012 competitors take centre stage, in a ceremony not clogged up by administrators.

George Clooney, Hollywood actor, UN peace envoy and Omega ambassador, says he has been pressurising the official Olympic timekeepers for over a year to speak out about China's role in the Darfur genocide.

Twelve months on, Omega have not said a word on the subject and Clooney is still wearing his Omega watch.

Super spinmeister Mike Lee, who played a leading role in the London 2012 bid, has moved seamlessly from working for Doha - who failed to make the 2016 short-list - to leading the Rio de Janeiro communications campaign.

His company, Vero, are also here lobbying for rugby sevens' Olympic inclusion as well as Jamaica and the IAAF.

But even all those tasks have not kept him in China this weekend. West Ham director Lee is briefly returning to watch his team's Premier League opener with Wigan and also attend a board meeting.

Censory perception

The tensions between media, Beijing organising committee spokesmen and IOC are now at breaking point due to the authorities dead-batting any question at the daily press conference on the topics of censorship and human rights.

A Channel Four reporter became increasingly agitated with IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies - whose commentator father Barry and mother Penny were in the room - when she refused to answer his repeated query as to whether the ruling Olympic body were embarrassed by China not keeping their promises on those issues.

Then, in a rare show of temper, BOCOG's spokesman Wang Wei went into a diatribe as to how China had made great strides forward and welcomed the media but did not want 'to dig into the small detail'.

Spanish basketball's promotional stunt of posing for an offensive slit-eyed team picture was described on Thursday by the IOC's Giselle Davies as 'inappropriate', which is the only time so far when Giselle has put her head above the Beijing parapet, preferring to smile and say nothing controversial while in China.