ONCE we get the two world darts championships and the interminable Dakar Rally out of the way there's quite a feast of sporting activity to look forward to this year.

Hopefully the Rugby World Cup triumph will inspire a return to Rule Britannia as opposed to the Cool Britannia image promoted by New Labour, and stacks of Olympic gold medals will boost national pride to even greater heights after Sven's men have won Euro 2004.

"Rule, not Cool" should be our new slogan. Laid-back sportsmen don't win anything - even the supremely talented Brian Lara seems to have realised that. Driven and dedicated performers like Steve Redgrave, Jonny Wilkinson and Paula Radcliffe are the ones who lift our spirits.

Watch out for our swimmers finally coming good in Athens under the relentless driving of Aussie coach Bill Sweetenham, but don't hold your breath in anticipation of any British girls getting through the first round at Wimbledon.

The year has begun with a tiff between the Lawn Tennis Association and our esteemed Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn, who suggested the LTA is "not as good as it should be" in bringing youngsters from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities into the sport.

The LTA have responded by pointing out that in 2001 they launched City Tennis Clubs, designed to regenerate park and school courts in inner-city and urban areas.

Providing facilities is only the start, and while any kind of recreation is to be encouraged when we are worried about teenage obesity, world-class performers will emerge only through the encouragement of a winning attitude.

Caborn seems to think the United States Tennis Association is responsible for producing the Williams sisters, when it is far more accurate to say that they were driven by an ambitious father. Perhaps we should put him in charge of the LTA, instead of people who talk about "business plans."

FAST bowling is hard work, which may be why cricket is starting to suffer from an imbalance between bat and ball. The Test just finished in Sydney produced 1,747 runs for the loss of 25 wickets and the one in Cape Town 1,648 runs for 28 wickets. Both matches were drawn with the side batting last still having plenty of wickets intact.

Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie are fine bowlers, but without Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne the Australian attack lacks depth, while of the 16 Australian wickets which fell at Sydney 12 of them went to leg-spinner Anil Kumble.

The West Indies, who from Hall and Griffiths through to Ambrose and Walsh were leading exponents of the art, now have no pacemen of note. And the South Africans include someone called Andre Nel, who when I saw him playing for Northants last season looked as though he couldn't bowl a hoop downhill.

England's concerns about their pace attack persuaded them to delay naming their squad to tour the West Indies, the problem being none of them stay fit long enough to prove they are international standard.

As computers and technology universally take over from hard graft, the logical conclusion in cricket is that robots will eventually open the bowling.

IT IS not beyond the realms of possibility, of course, that some mollycoddled, overpaid footballers don't work as hard as they might to stay fit and offer the best value for money they possibly can. From what I saw of Jonathan Woodgate on Saturday the superlatives were not misplaced, and hopefully now he will feel he owes Newcastle and their fans such performances until the end of the season. If Craig Bellamy is similarly inclined when he returns it could still be a successful season for the Magpies.

It's them or Liverpool, of course.

They can't both progress in the FA Cup following the fourth round draw and they can't both get into the Champions League, although it must surely be one or the other rather than the likes of Charlton.

Liverpool will shortly have their captain, Steven Gerrard, back and I have seen him quoted as saying: "I wasn't coming into training and working hard. I was letting myself exist in a comfort zone."

If he has seen the light it will be good news for Liverpool and good news for England, who tend to win when he plays. If only all the other prima donnas would be as honest with themselves and pledge to work tirelessly to win Euro 2004 it might actually happen.

CHAMPION jockey Tony McCoy is a driven man, which is why he gave a horse called Deano's Beano a few reminders in an effort to get him to start a race last week. His felt-covered whip wouldn't do the horse any harm, but the Cheltenham stewards banned McCoy for five days. After all, we musn't upset the animal rights people, must we?

Published: 09/01/04