Canadian capers cutting no ice

Inside Lines

If you think British football is suffering from an overdose of foreignitis, you would not want to be an ice hockey fan. Of the 150 players currently employed in the SuperLeague, only 10 are British-born. Six years ago there were more than a hundred. And of those 10 only half a dozen are included in the British squad for the coming world championships in Katowice, Poland. In the main it is comprised of Rusedskis-on-ice whose British qualification comes courtesy of the granny route. No wonder Jo Collins, of the British Ice Hockey Players' Association, finds it deeply disturbing. "One wonders what future there is for the game here if we are not nurturing our own young players," she says. Equally disturbed are the denizens of Kirkcaldy, where the local Fife Flyers who have swept all before them in the British National League and cup competitions are going for the Grand Slam this weekend and next against the Basingstoke Bison in the play-off finals. Up in Fife's fiefdom the oldest club in Britain are enjoying the most successful season in their 61-year history and are perplexed that not one one of their players has made the British squad, including 18-year-old netminder Steven Murphy, who has been voted just about everyone's player of the season. "We get players in all the junior squads but when it comes to the senior team, it's a case of thank you, and goodnight," says spokesman Allan Crow. "It is ironic that here we are flying the British flag as the most decorated club in the land but our players are not considered good enough for the national team. There has long been a joke about the game being dominated by a Manitobian Mafia but we wouldn't mind so much of the national coach [Canadian Peter Woods] paid us a visit, but he hasn't set foot here in the four years he has been in the job." A case of the cold shoulder?

Actor Ally up for The Cup

Is Hollywood beckoning for Ally McCoist? Already an engaging TV chat and quiz show performer, he has just finished filming The Cup, in which he plays one Jackie McQuillan, an ageing Scottish footballer ("A bit like myself, really") and movie agents are said to be sniffing around after rave reports of his thespian talents from co-star Robert Duvall. The veteran American, who assumes a Scottish accent, as the manager of a small-town team which reaches the Scottish Cup final, reckons 37-year-old McCoist in a natural. The film is due to be launched at the Cannes Film Festival, and McCoist might even be joining fellow luvvie Vinnie Jones at next year's Oscars ceremony.

The tangled web sport weaves

Web surfers will have been in eyebrow-raising mode last week. Those clicking on to www.lords.org would have been surprised to be informed that "Hampshire expect bumper crowds to watch their overseas stars Shane Warne and Alan Mullally this summer." Really? Have Lord's discovered something in Mullally's ancestry which makes him ineligible for England after all. I think we should be told. Or someone at Lord's should be told off. Then there was the hilarious piece of hacking into the Leeds United fan club site apparently by a cheeky Turk who superimposed the figure of a Galatasary fan relieving himself over the United logo. But if you can't beat modern technology, join it, we say. So anyone who'd like us to know something we shouldn't, about the web or whatever, can reach us at: insidelines@independent.co.uk.

Oman and a woman

What is the sports minister doing spending the weekend in a sultry climate with Trevor Brooking? Inspecting sports facilities, that's what. Kate Hoey and the chairman of Sport England are in Oman as members a UK delegation, which also includes former athlete Steve Cram, looking at possible warm-weather training sites in the Gulf state for British athletes, in exchange for our coaching expertise. No doubt Hoey and Brooking will be discussing the implications of impending changes at Sport England.

Lord Fergie, peer of Old Trafford?

With double Olympic champion Sebastian Coe about to take up his seat in the House of Lords (see below), it brings the number of sporting peers to one short of a quorum. Coe joins Lord (Colin) Moynihan, ex-rowing cox, sports minister and fellow former Olympian, and Lord (Colin) Cowdrey of cricketing distinction. Coe and Moynihan are Tories, Cowdrey, although not noted for any leftist leanings, bats for the cross-benchers. So what's the betting that a certain well-known footballing Labourite will be invited to be measured for the ermine robe whenever he is ready for it. Lord Ferguson of Old Trafford has a noble enough ring about it.

Another nice little Hearner

That ubiquitous showman Barry Hearn, apparently unfazed by criticism he has received following his Jim Davidson-tone comments about immigrants, continues to expand in the best empire-building traditions. After his ventures into snooker, boxing, fishing golf and football he's now offering to give table tennis the treatment. Hearn has approached the English Table Tennis Association with ideas to promote the game, doubtless attracted by the fact that the sport's biggest growth area here is among enthnic minorities in schools and our best player, Matthew Syed, is of Asian immigrant stock.