Politicians' silence on 2012 Games speaks volumes

Have thanked friends and loved ones for their support and have hinted at the challenges ahead. Politico-speak and sport-speak are one and the same.

The last few weeks have been a marathon not a sprint and now it's all over. Till the next time.

By when, it's possible, although given the result not likely, that the 2012 Olympic Games will have come and gone. You remember the Olympics? The biggest event of most of our lifetimes is only 26 months away and yet barely a word, hardly a syllable, has been uttered on the subject by any politicians in the run-up to polling day.

One reason for that is probably, and rather unusually, the efficient way the preparations for the Games are progressing. When the only news stories circulating in the past month have been the announcement of Loughborough University as the holding camp for the GB team (not altogether surprising) and the risk of a rise in the rat population on the Olympic site because of the huge building operations (even less surprising) you know it's pretty quiet.

I went round the park last week and it takes the breath away. Not just the stadiums and arenas but the scale of the parkland that will rejuvenate the entire area. No wonder the politicians haven't been talking about it — although Gordon Brown, by proxy, could surely have claimed it was Labour who brought the Games to London.

Far easier to complain and criticise and score points off projects and ideas that are failing. But another, somewhat less upbeat reason, is perhaps behind their reluctance to bring the Olympics into the political arena. From blue to red and yellow, are they all just a bit concerned about the true scale of any sporting legacy that will be left behind — the bedrock of that brilliant bid in Singapore five years ago. East London will undeniably benefit on a huge scale, and one or two sports such as cycling will have new centres of excellence. The powers-that-be at West Ham should be moving heaven and earth to ensure they become the new tenants at the Olympic Stadium.

For the rest of the country, though, will the legacy be one huge hangover after a joyous 17-day party and little else? How many of us detect a reluctance from local authorities towards moving sport up their spending pecking order. Where is the evidence of the move towards a million more people playing sport? Are your children doing slightly less PSHE and a bit more PE?

Do the politicians know in their heart of hearts that many of the grand promises of the Olympic manifesto five years ago are going to be nigh-on impossible to deliver, so while we all think the Games are a wonderful thing, we'd better not talk about them too much.

If you stand on the look-out platform above the park, gaze towards Canary Wharf and then drop your eyes to the 10,000 workforce beavering away on creating this sporting nirvana for 2012, it is impossible not to be awestruck by the scale of the operation and by the vision and expertise of the engineering wizards who are directing it.

You want our new government — whatever colour and composition it may end up being — to be talking this weekend, not just about how they're going to tackle the economic and social ills besetting us, but also about the great opportunities that lie in front of us, of which none are greater than the Olympic Games and its aftermath.

But it's unlikely that they will. Because nobody wants to admit that there may be trouble ahead. Not in the run-up to 2012 but in the months following. When people ask what was it all about?' and politicians, like on so many other occasions, find themselves struggling for the answers.

Cricket's logic leaves me stumped

I'm trying very hard to get worked up by the World Twenty20, and am singularly failing. It has the air of an after‑thought following the razzamatazz of the IPL.

The weather hasn't helped but its timing within the international calendar is bizarre, and for cricket fans in this country, the county schedule is incomprehensible enough as it is. What competition are these teams playing in? How many overs is this match? Who are the Unicorns? (Don't worry if you don't know the answer to that one — it would take too long to explain.)

Why are England not playing a Test match in this country at the height of summer when Australia and Pakistan are?

If there are good reasons for the current structure of the world and domestic game, they're certainly not being communicated very well. Could someone perhaps let us all know?

Reason to be cheerful . . .

Be honest. You're a Chelsea fan. Or Arsenal. Or Spurs. Or anyone. And you're all glad that Fulham have made it to the Europa League Final. It's said that every dog has its day, and while the big London clubs are a combination of rotweiler and alsatian, Roy Hodgson's club remain a collie/spaniel cross that seem irresistibly cuddly. May they bite Atletico Madrid on the proverbial next Wednesday.