WITH rather more weighty matters such as weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on his mind, Tony Blair must wish he had never heard of a London Olympic bid (LOB). In fact, he probably wishes he could lob a WMD into the whole idea.

And who can blame him? Apparently 80 per cent of the electorate are in favour of a bid, but they also want improvements in the NHS, transport and education.

It's quite a dilemma for a cash-strapped government which, beyond acknowledging that it is good for the nation's health, doesn't give a hoot about sport.

This is underlined by lumping sport together with culture and media in a department with a select committee of whom only seven out of 11 turned up to debate the merits of an Olympic bid this week.

Only two of the committee have any particular interest in sport and one of those is Teessider Alan Keen, a Middlesbrough fan who says he hates Arsenal.

The other is former England rugby player Derek Wyatt, who says he would like the Olympics to come to this country, but not within the M25.

We might all drink to that, but he's wasting his breath because we've repeatedly been told it's London or nothing, just as it was with the national stadium.

So, after the lunacy of committing £750m to Wembley, the government will not risk duplicating the error by chucking £200m at merely preparing a bid which is probably doomed to fail. If they want to show some real commitment to sport they could start by using the current Local Government Bill to give 80 per cent mandatory rate relief to all amateur sports clubs.

IN a week when Robbie Fowler's proposed move to Manchester City was delayed by his desire for more than £35,000 a week, it was refreshing to find that Ruud van Nistelrooy agrees with me that Premiership footballers' wages are "obscene".

Although his words have predictably now been denied, this emerged from a debate about whether it is healthy for footballers to gamble away a week's pay in card games. It might equally have resulted from the revelation that Ryan Giggs has stopped swapping between Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins every three months because the different clutches were affecting his hamstring.

While van Nistelrooy's words in a magazine interview were reproduced on the Manchester United website, it did not shed any light on whether he donates large chunks of his own wealth to charity rather than frittering it away.

Personally I would ban the card schools and replace them with compulsory study of Shakespeare, with the understanding that no-one can go into Premiership battle without first reciting Henry V's speech at Agincourt. You can be certain it does not include the words "at the end of the day."

THERE seems little danger of England's cricketers peaking too soon in their build-up to the World Cup, although I still think they might exceed current expectations if Andy Flintoff and Craig White are fit to bowl flat out.

That should at least spare them the apparently agonising decision of what to do about Stephen Harmison. If they think they need pace to apply a brake in mid-innings, let the two all-rounders supply it, rather than the wayward Ashington Express.

Harmison has had his moments during the Ashes series, and hopefully in the long run he will benefit enormously from the whole experience. But to select him for the World Cup was ludicrous.

His old problem with sore shins keeps returning and it would have been better for all concerned - not least his wife with their new-born child - had he been sent home in triumph after the final Test victory.

That would have given him plenty of time to recuperate before trying to propel Durham up the County Championship, while sparing him his current embarrassment.

NO doubt there was an element of truth in what Nasser Hussain had to say about English pitches following the Ashes defeat. But he should remember that climatic conditions have a big impact, as can be seen from the paltry totals being mustered by India in New Zealand.

Sachin Tendulkar can hardly make a run, nor can Rahul Dravid, who could not stop scoring centuries in England last summer. And don't tell me that the Kiwi attack is better than ours.

The New Zealanders are struggling for runs themselves and clearly need to perfect the technology of growing pitches in greenhouses, like the one on which Graham Thorpe and Nathan Astle scored their double hundreds last winter.

Pitches will always vary around the world, and the Australian attitude is that it's the same for both sides and instead of being suspicious of the surface they just get on with playing positive cricket.

When England play Australia they are mentally beaten before they start, so it's in the head where the real work needs to be done, not in the soil.