IT'S been the sort of week when you can almost hear Wayne Rooney asking: "Who is this bloke Tanni Grey-Thompson?"

It has taken something pretty special to compete with Rooney for the biggest headlines after marking his Manchester United debut with a Champions League hat-trick, and to the tabloids there's no contest. He's a prize bull, gifted beyond belief, and in terms of publicity value he's going to be bigger than Beckham. Max Clifford is probably working even now on an introduction to Maria Sharapova and negotiating with Hello magazine over exclusive rights to the wedding.

Tanni, on the other hand, is in a wheelchair, and that's not tabloid material. The Americans didn't bother to televise the Paralympics because so few want to watch.

There's obviously a moral dilemma here. I don't want to watch them either, partly because despite the multitude of categories there are often big differences in levels of disability within a race, resulting in it being no contest.

Those journalists who do cover the Paralympics always go overboard in stressing how inspirational they find the contestants. They almost seem shocked by the competitive spirit of people who have every right to moan and whinge, but Tanni wouldn't thank them for such observations. She doesn't like anyone reporting that she "suffers" from spina bifida, because as far as she's concerned she doesn't suffer at all.

Like the sailor Ben Ainslie, who was disqualified in his first race in Athens and fought back magnificently to win gold, Tanni seemed to be fired up by her tactical blunder in her first final, which saw her trail in seventh in the 800 metres. Two golds later, taking her overall tally to 11, she was Britain's most successful Paralympian and, like Matthew Pinsent, was forced to deflect the inevitable questions about whether she would be competing at Beijing in four years.

Does it really matter? She has nothing more to prove to those of us who marvel, however briefly, at her dedication and competitive spirit. She will do it if she wants to and has her family's support. That's what is important about the Paralympics. They will never attract huge public interest, but they give athletes with disabilities the same deserved opportunity as the prize bulls of this world to enjoy competing against each other.

BACK to Rooney. The £19m offer made by Newcastle now looks so puny that we are forced to wonder whether they were persuaded to make it by Manchester United in order to keep the asking price down.

The other theory is that the Magpies made the offer to persuade their fans of their ambition after selling Jonathan Woodgate. Either way, it now looks like peanuts in the crazy world of football finance, in which Manchester United revealed this week that they paid £5m to agents last year.

The club's chief executive David Gill said: "Footballers are not used to doing deals. Agents do that on their behalf and you would expect them to be remunerated. Anyone who does not see that is not in the real world."

Those of us who exist in a far more real world than Mr Gill evidently inhabits have long been of the opinion that footballers and their parasitic agents are the ones on a different planet, and we can only hope and pray that the supremely gifted Rooney somehow manages to keep his feet on the ground.

MANCHESTER United's 6-2 win on Tuesday was a welcome goal glut after they, Arsenal and Chelsea all won their Premiership games 1-0 on Saturday. That's all they need to do as they scrap it out for the title, and United underlined that it's in the Champions League where the real entertainment will come. There is also the real possibility that any one of the three could win it now that Rooney has lit up the way for United.

THE worldwide trading of players is now beginning to infest cricket. Kevin Pietersen turned his back on South Africa because he felt his chances were limited by the quota system which insisted on a certain number of black players being selected.

So now he is to play for England in Zimbabwe, where the reversal of racism is blamed for driving out all the white players. There is no moral dilemma for Pietersen - he simply wants to play cricket at the highest possible level and can expect a soft introduction to it.

This tour should, of course, have been called off 18 months ago and now that it is almost upon us the pressure will grow for the players to examine their consciences. Some might say that if Jack Straw can shake hands with Robert Mugabe, as he did this week, then why should they tolerate yet another cry for cricketers to be political pawns? Despite a team desire to stick together, in the end it's down to individuals and there may yet be some withdrawals.

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire signed a third South African this week, the son of coach Kepler Wessels, in addition to their two official overseas players. So in a few years England might be able to send a team of white South African exiles to play Zimbabwe - that's if Mugabe lets them in.

Published: ??/??/2004