'Ping pong is coming home': Boris takes hold of the baton

Who better than an eccentric Englishman to take the Games from Beijing to London? Cue Boris Johnson.

The London Mayor strode on to the international stage yesterday, happily waved the Olympic flag, and told the watching world in no uncertain terms: "Ping pong is coming home".

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He waved the huge banner as he was joined by Gordon Brown and other senior ministers as he addressed the throng at a party in Beijing which was held to celebrate the handover to London in typical style by hailing Britain as the inventor of the parlour game turned Olympic favourite.

In a speech peppered with classical references at London House, the British Games' headquarters in Beijing, Mr Johnson said Britain had invented table tennis over its dining tables before it became a Chinese national obsession.

To cheers from the assembled British officials, Mr Johnson declared that the Chinese "have excelled magnificently at ping pong. Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England and it was called whiff whaff".

"There you have, I think, the essential difference between us and the rest of the world. Other nations such as the French looked at the dining table and saw the opportunity to have dinner. We looked at the dining table and saw an opportunity to play whiff whaff.

He continued: "That is why London is the sporting capital of the world. I say to the Chinese and I say to the world – ping pong is coming home."

Asked about his difficulties waving the Olympic flag in front of the huge Beijing crowd at the closing ceremony, he said: "It was very much more complicated than you might think." He said he would deliver a Games that was "just as fantastic, just as memorable" as the Beijing Olympics.

He said: "It was a wonderful moment for me and it is a very, very big responsibility that now passes to us, but I am absolutely sure that we are going to deliver an Olympic Games every bit as good in its way as the Games we have just seen."

As the partying went on into the night, Gordon Brown floated the idea of the Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, managing a special GB-wide football squad for the 2012 Games.

Britain has not entered in recent years because the four home countries – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – compete separately in international matches and are keen to protect that independence

Mr Brown said: "I have talked to him about it. I think he would have to be approached formally by the relevant authorities, but he is one of the people mentioned and he has not turned it down."

Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, said: "We have a lot of hard graft now to make it work."