Why sport needs a spot of cheek by Jowell

Prime Minister Tony Blair is coming under pressure from sports bodies and a number of senior Labour figures to give the sports minister Cabinet status. Following last week's annual conference of the Central Council of Physical Recreation, new chairman Howard Wells is to write to the PM suggesting that Britain should fall into line with most European counterparts. He will have support from both Houses of Parliament. In the Lords, former Labour sports spokesmen Lord Tom Pendry has emphasised the need for such an upgrade and in a recent Commons debate, the Sittingbourne MP, Derek Wyatt, a former rugby international declared: "We need a Secretary of State for Sport, Health and Education who should be the chairman of UK Sport." This proposal has much to commend it. Unfortunately there is one snag. The present incumbent, Richard Caborn, doesn't want to be in the Cabinet. He told last week's conference: "It is not necessary. We have a perfectly good Secretary of State in Tessa Jowell who speaks for sport in the Cabinet." Dear me, Dick, you cannot be serious. With all due respect to Ms Jowell, a lady of Mary Archeresque fragrance, sport might just as well be represented at Cabinet level by David Blunkett's dog. Unfortunately governments of both hues have a habit of appointing Secretaries of State whose sports knowledge is virtually non-existent. We all remember the disastrous Virginia Bottomley in John Major's Cabinet, and surely sport's recent governmental debacles were largely due to having Chris Smith representing it at Cabinet level. For once Blair should listen to real sports people, and not the bureaucratic dilettantes who seem to have his ear.

Caborn and the ministry of silly talks

Getting your act together was the theme of the Sports Minister's address to the CCPR conference on Wednesday. Pity the message had not filtered down to Sport England.

Astonishingly, at 24 hours notice, they called a London press conference to introduce their new chief executive David Moffett, just a couple of hours after Richard Caborn was making his keynote speech 150 miles away in Lincolnshire. The minister, clearly miffedat having his thunder stolen, had to abandon his planned networking with sports leaders to hotfoot it back for the sparsely-attended Sport England affair.

Moffett is here for nearly a month before taking up his £140,000 a year post in January. So why create a clash that diluted the coverage of both events?

"It was because of the engagements of the Sport England chairman, Trevor Brooking," said the minister's spokesman. "The minister would have been happy to make it on Thursday or Friday." All very unprofessional. Maybe Sport England should call on Frank Warren to advise them on how and when to organise press conferences.

What's in a name? Quite a lot, apparently

The changing image of the CCPR was much on the agenda at last week's conference and the need for a strong umbrella body to spearhead the vital lobby for sport in Westminster and Whitehall is paramount. Fine. But so far there's no agreement about a change of name. My suggestion would be the National Sports Council. The NSC has a neat ring about it, redolent of the old National Sporting Club. Alas, some of the more fuddy-duddy members of the CCPR are opposed to introducing the word "sport" into the title, claiming that many governing bodies represent leisure and recreational activities rather than sport. Seems daft to argue over semantics at a time when so much needs to be done – in the name of sport.

We don't need Picketts Lock to remind us that we have a government that is prolific on pledges but dodgy on delivery. Which is why UK Athletics should not be holding its breath about the £48 million promised as a sop for the loss of the World Athletics Championships.

The figure is to be discussed by Sport England, the National Lottery distributor, tomorrow. But like the equally promised government proposals for tax exemptions for voluntary sports clubs, it may turn out to be a disappointment. The Treasury's decision to give only limited tax concessions and exemptions comes as a body-blow for more than 100,000 amateur clubs after the groundwork done by the CCPR and former minister, Kate Hoey. "It's disgraceful," says the CCPR's Nigel Hook. "The Treasury have turned their back on sport. They have skipped over taking responsibility for charitable rate relief. So much for parity with charity. This only emphasises the need to have a powerful ministerial voice arguing the case for sport in the Cabinet." Quite.

The Ipswich chairman, David Sheepshanks, a member of one of East Anglia's wealthiest families, says he was a dove when a footballers' strike was first mooted, but gradually became a hawk.

Apparently he met with his players urging them not to support the PFA's demands. Some of the more cynical among them raised the odd eyebrow as he had just awarded himself a hefty bonus of around £250,000. Nothing wrong in that, as in his executive role he is entitled to be paid. But it shows that the days when club chairmen, especially at Ipswich, were happy to do the job for the pleasure of a few Scotches with chums in the boardroom, are long gone.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

Ferguson should go. He's definitely lost his appetite. Former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty on Sir Alex ... He's got his hunger back, without a doubt. Mike Tyson's trainer Tommy Brooks with a warning for Lennox Lewis... I don't want to read about this in the News Of The World. Chairman Sir Rodney Walker to the Rugby League Council on the sport's financial crisis... When I asked them to wear tutus and ladies' underwear they were a bit sceptical. Sports physiologist George Wilson on introducing Tranmere's footballers to ballet lessons.