UR TV CAST

And it’s transpired it’s going with the one that’s investing no money.”On 30 June 2001, WPBSA’s reserves were £3.1m Last week, they admitted they were down to £800,000. This is the last season in which tobacco sponsorship is permitted, except for the Embassy World Championship. They also face a High Court action in March in which Trans World International are claiming £3.1m.Last season, WPBSA promoted nine world-ranking events. Initially, they said they could afford only six this year but by economies, they aim to squeeze out the money for two more. WSE recently asked Regal to agree that prizes for the Welsh and Scottish Opens be reduced from £597,000 to £500,000 each, so the difference could go towards another ranking event. Regal refused.Stan James, the bookmakers, who paid £75,000 to become title sponsors of last year’s British Open, declined to renew for this week’s event, as their marketing director, Steve Walsh, put it, “in the light of previous experience in dealings with the WPBSA”.On TV, snooker remains strong. Chris Small and Alan McManus are not top box office, but their LG Cup final last month peaked at 3.4m viewers to give BBC2 a 30.7 per cent share of the terrestrial audience.

Despite the figures, the sponsorship world has lost confidence in the WPBSA.Peter Ebdon, the reigning world champion, supports the status quo, believing that “the game should be run by and for the players”, but this ignores the failure of this system over a long period of time.The merits of the case may not decide the argument. Within an electorate of 78, there is a web of alliances and enmities, and half-a-dozen floating voters may be decisive.. The Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, is currently on a fortnight’s “fact-finding” excursion in Australia, by way of the Melbourne Cup and the First Test in Brisbane, to see how Sydney managed to stage such an uplifting Olympics in 2000. Dateline: Athens
The Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, is currently on a fortnight’s “fact-finding” excursion in Australia, by way of the Melbourne Cup and the First Test in Brisbane, to see how Sydney managed to stage such an uplifting Olympics in 2000. A perfectly valid exercise, though it might have been more beneficial had he opted to be here last week to assess how Athens is getting its act together for the next Games, which begin in 642 days’ time. A far more relevant criterion by which to judge whether his Government should back a London bid for 2012. It all looks hearteningly promising, say the IOC’s trouble-shooting Co-ordination Commission, a body which an Olympian London would come to know well.

No doubt Caborn has already discovered that the Australian government have significantly increased their financial commitment to sport in the post-Sydney euphoria; he would have gulped even more to learn that the Greek government have allocated some £10m to be used exclusively for the preparation of 640 Olympic athletes. Contrast this to the depressing news back home that the Government have broken yet another promise to sport with a 15 per cent funding cut next year for Sport England’s World Class programme. It will then fall by £21m over the next four years from the present £36m. And there is still no news of the £40m recommended by the Cunningham Review to sustain the programme leading up to Athens. The shadow sports minister, John Greenway, whose Parliamentary question unearthed the unpalatable admission, says that several governing bodies have told him they may have to scrap their entire sports programmes “It is shameful The sports minister should get back from the Gabba. There is a real crisis in sport and it is happening right here.”Redgrave and Co ready to tackle BlairSuch is the concern that cuts in Lottery funding will cost Britain Olympic medals in Athens that Prime Minister Tony Blair can expect a verbal roasting from some of the nation’s top sports personalities when he hosts a reception for Common-wealth Games winners later this month.

Additionally, disheartened sports leaders plan to enlist the aid of such notables as rowing stars Sir Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent to lobby Downing Street. The swimming chief, David Sparkes, is among those demanding action. He says: “Disgraceful is not too strong a word to describe what is going on at Government level as far as sport is concerned. After Sydney, Tony Blair made a public pledge that ?te funding would be maintained up to Athens Not for the first time, he has gone back on his word These cuts may only be the beginning. They will not only affect our medal prospects in Athens, but also Beijing.