Inside Lines: Sport's fingers crossed to save Lottery cash

The sports minister, Richard Caborn, will be proposing changes to the Lotteries Act to protect sport's share of the proceeds, which are dwindling fast. "I am seeking ways to ensure that sport's drop in revenue can be rectified," he tells me. Caborn doesn't wish to be specific, but he believes there are ways sport can compete more effectively with other causes, notably the arts, for Lottery funding. However, he says that sport also has to help itself by giving more credit to the Lottery for the cash it does receive. In future he wants prominence given to the crossed fingers symbol on tracksuits and vests worn by British competitors rather than the logos of UK Sport and the national sports councils, such as Sport England, through whom Lottery funding is channelled. Lottery organisers Camelot have expressed disappointment that they do not receive credit for their contribution to sport and Caborn says: "I would like to see the Lottery publicised rather than the quangos." Recently Sport England were criticised because their annual report suggested they had given £165m to help finance the Commonwealth Games when in fact it was Lottery money. "We are all concerned," says Caborn. "There is no doubt that a drop in Lottery revenue is damaging to sport. We have to get it back up again by persuading people to buy more tickets. The public would be happy if they thought more of their money was going into sport." Caborn believes comedian Billy Connolly was the wrong choice for the new Lotto campaign. "Someone like Steve Redgrave would have been better. People can identify with a winner like him."

Tonya to break the ice for Tyson fight

Almost as intriguing as the return in Memphis on 22 February of the allegedly reformed, rehabilitated Mike Tyson will be the appearance on the undercard of one of sport's most infamous figures. Tonya Harding, best-remembered for her involvement in the knee-capping of her Olympic skating rival Nancy Kerrigan in 1994, will face an unnamed opponent in a bantamweight bout. Harding, 32 has flirted with the fight game before, taking part in a "celebrity bout" in which she pummelled Paula Jones, who once sued Bill Clinton for sexual harrassment. Tyson, who meets Clifford Etienne, and Harding seem to have a fair bit in common. Both have done time – in Harding's case for violation of a probation order she had received for belabouring her ex-boyfriend with a hubcap. Another all-female fight many would have paid good money to see will not, alas, take place. The veteran Olympic judo silver-medallist Kate Howey was relishing revenge in Wigan today in the British Closed Championships against Samantha Lowe, who controversially kept her out of the Commonwealth Games. But Lowe has a damaged knee. Nothing to do with Ms Harding, we trust.

Sport gets Carter, but can't figure it out

Despite intensive spinning from Westminster, few in the game are persuaded that New Labour luvvie Patrick Carter really is a jolly good sport and not a Government hit man. His predictable appointment as chairman of Sport England in succession to the accessible and much-liked Trevor Brooking has left that body, and other agencies, enshrouded in gloom, as it has much of the media. During his previous excursions into the sporting arenas, such as the Picketts Lock and Wembley inquiries, he was reclusive and unhelpful. Last week he declined to be interviewed – except in the Financial Times. Which figures. He's a bottom-liner, not a headliner.

When the Government formed a new strategy body called the PIU we were told it stood for Performance and Innovation Unit. Predictably Ill-conceived and Useless more like it, judging from their report on sport which has been totally rewritten in Whitehall because ministers considered most of its conclusions "silly".

And so they were, suggesting that sport did not have a positive impact on crime or social inclusion and that home nations should compete individually in the Olympics. Its principal author, an economist named John Clarke, is said to be deeply miffed and has left the unit. One wonders why he was ever appointed if he and his team can reach such ridiculous conclusions as the hosting of major events having no economic impact on the locality. If that is the case, how come an independent report into the world half-marathon championhips in Bristol concluded that it was worth more than half a million pounds to the city?

A few weeks ago in these pages we told the uplifting tale of a young doctor, Damien Hatton, who has put his medical career on hold to run a Street Football League for London's down-and-outs.

Such has been the success of the venture that a representative side has been invited to play in Brazil next year, as well as the Homeless World Cup in Austria. Inspired by the story the Brazilian Embassy have arranged for three of the nation's Premiership stars, Middlesbrough's Juninho and the Arsenal pair Gilberto Silva and Edu, to provide coaching sessions for the street footballers this month. As Sven's men are at present homeless while Wembley is rebuilt, might they qualify for Brazilian tutorials, too?

Insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

He whupped my butt and saved my soul. Mike Tyson says losing to Lennox Lewis made him a better person... Eddie Murphy, because he'd make me laugh my pants off. Britain's new triathlon world champion, Lenada Cave, on her ideal dinner date... County cricket doesn't stand for that much. Nasser Hussain on why Michael Vaughan is a late developer... That's ridiculous. He'll give us a hard time. Tessa Jowell insists Patrick Carter, new chairman of Sport England, is no Government stooge.