From next week my blog will be coming from Beijing.
Although the do not begin until August 8 - the Chinese consider 8 so lucky that they planned the opening ceremony for 8pm on 08/08/08 - the week before the Games begin is always an important one in terms of sports politics.
This is when meetings of the Executive Board of the and the wider IOC session are held, meetings which bring together the great and good from the world of sport.
While it is easy to mock these gatherings as jollies for the blazer brigade, they remain the most important gathering of those who run world sports.
Read the rest of this entry
The start of construction of the three months ahead of schedule sounds just like the good news story London 2012 should be bragging about.
But the fact is that the issues surrounding the most hyped sporting venue for the London Games illustrate many of the problems that now dog it.
Yes, the Games will provide Londoners with some marvellous facilities, including Olympic-sized swimming pools.
But for the Aquatics Centre to be converted into use for the community after the Games, more money will have to be spent on it, another facility built next to it, and more money found for it.
Read the rest of this entry
English cricket is ready to follow the example of as it heads for a revolution in which some of the long-established principles of the county game could be abandoned.
I learned the details of the plans for the future while watching on a rain-interrupted day at a ground with probably no more than 100 people in attendance - but the future will be far different if the authors of the report get their way.
I have seen the 21-page document and I am staggered by what Surrey chairman David Stewart and MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw - with the help of Hampshire and Lancashire - have produced.
Read the rest of this entry
Ali Bacher, the former head of South African cricket, has added his voice to those demanding a sporting boycott of Zimbabwe, calling for a "sustained and concerted" campaign of isolation to .
Bacher, the last captain of the white South African cricket team which existed before sporting sanctions were imposed for the country's racist sporting policies, told me: "Look at our own history.
"During the apartheid years the majority of South Africa's white sporting community held the view that sport and politics should not mix. But (prominent anti-apartheid campaigner) was right when he said that there can be no normal sport in an abnormal society.
Read the rest of this entry
is happy with the progress being made in to get the country ready for but are very concerned about Ukraine.
That is the message coming from the headquarters of European football following the visit of an inspection delegation led by Uefa president and including executive members , former FA chairman, to these two countries.
Read the rest of this entry
The resolution of the , keeping Zimbabwe out of the World Twenty20 in England, comes as no surprise.
This was exactly the fudge I anticipated last Friday in my blog.
I did not think Zimbabwe would be thrown out of the but a solution would be found to keep them out of the World Twenty20.
Read the rest of this entry
Michel Platini knows all about a footballer being as good as his last game. But he is discovering that this also applies when you become a football administrator.
Having presided over arguably the best ever European Championship he is this week coping with the possibility of having to move from the hosts Poland and Ukraine.
Read the rest of this entry
overestimated the number of security personnel that would be available for the Olympic Games by over six times, a top private sector security expert told a conference on 2012 security in London on Tuesday morning.
When London won the bid in Singapore back in 2005 the bid book said that 6,500 security personnel would be available. But at present there are only 1,000 available and a lot more training needs to be undertaken if the gap is to be closed by the time the Games start.
If not this would put pressure on the police who would have to step in.
David Evans, Project Director 2012 for the , also told a 2020 security conference that the bid had assumed that there would be a public private sector partnership which would deliver Games security.
Read the rest of this entry
Mihir Bose's blog is no longer being updated. You can read recent entries about 91Èȱ¬ Sport's coverage and insights into the latest issues on the 