Remember the good times, forget Olympics

Inside Lines

Dateline: Manchester

The flags of the 72 competing nations will be hauled down today but yesterday Manchester was flying the Jolly Rogge. Jacques' all right as far as the Commonwealth Games are concerned. The International Olympic Committee president proved himself as skilled a diplomat as he was a surgeon when he formally ruled out any notion of a joint bid with London for a future Olympics, but left the door teasingly ajar for Manchester to try again – if the British Olympic Association can be dissuaded from their London-only line. That is highly unlikely, but at least Rogge said Manchester's superb stage-management of these games had "totally erased" the memory of the shambles of Wembley and Picketts Lock and restored Britain's tattered international reputation. The IOC, he said, would definitely welcome a British bid which "would be a strong one as you are a sports-loving country. You invented sport". Well, the Greeks might demur, but Rogge knows how to deal his cards. "It is up to you, the Brits, to decide whether you want to bid, and with which city, but at least after Manchester you will be able to bid to the full potential and with high credentials." Currently Rogge has more on his mind than Manchester – a little matter of alleged Russian Mafia involvement in rigging skating in Salt Lake into which, he says, he has ordered "a thorough investigation". Meanwhile, the natives here remain restless, and the feeling is that Manchester is being given the big-brother treatment by the BOA. However, the argument could be academic. Manchester should rest on its laurels and forget 2012, as no doubt London will too once the potential cost is counted.

Games show there is nothing like a Done

After the medals, the gongs. When the current chairman of Sport England was addressed as "Sir Trevor" during a press conference here last week it may have been a prophetic slip of the tongue for, despite the over-the-top kicking he received during the Parliamentary inquiry into Sport England's role in the Wembley débâcle, it seems certain the sword will not slip from his shoulder in the next Honours List. Brooking is one of a number of personalities involved in the Commonwealth Games who can expect the royal command. But if anyone deserves a dubbing surely it is Frances Done the 53-year-old chief executive of the organising body, who admitted she knew "bugger all" about sport when, as a high-flying accountant, she was drafted in to turn the fortunes of the Games around two years ago. "I want people to say, 'That's how sport should be run'," she vowed. Well, they have, so now they should make the diva a dame.

Haye ready to join the professionals

David Haye has a dilemma: should he stay or should he go? It is the fact that he went in the first place that has caused the headache. His decision to seek outside medical opinion on the bicep injury which caused his subsequent Games withdrawal has resulted in a rift with the national coach, Ian Irwin, that will be less easily repaired than Hayes' muscle. Haye admits his action was regrettable "I just panicked when I woke up and couldn't move my arm," he says. Now he must decide whether to try again for gold in the Olympics, as counselled by Audley Harrison, or turn professional, as suggested by promoter Frank Warren. "I'm going to chill out and think about it," says Haye. "I'd like to stay on for Athens, but I have to live." Looks like the pro game will get the decision.

There are dark mutterings among the handful of senior pros left in the BBC sports team covering the Commonwealth Games they feel their style has been cramped by the dozens of dilettantes drafted in by head of sport Peter Salmon.

Audley Harrison is the latest celeb pundit to join the platoon of twittering tyros, but at least his presence at the boxing finals offered some heavyweight credibility among the lightweights cluttering up many other sports. One BBC veteran proffered the view that the commentary box nowadays is more like a locker room, and that any random drugs check would result in positive tests for a substance called anodyne. Salmon shrugs off criticism by suggesting that the Beeb bashers are simply envious, yet even insiders are now saying that in terms of their Games coverage, especially the quality of the interviewing by the likes of the hapless Sally Gunnell, the BBC now stands for Bland, Boring and Crass. How about Bring Back Coleman?

In between dodging brickbats from miffed Mancunians over his dismissive dampening of their hopes of future Olympic glory, the sports minister, Richard Caborn, has been giving some thought to who should succeed Trevor Brooking in October as chairman of Sport England.

Caborn says he has a short-list, which is believed to be headed by Sir Richard Branson. However, a new name has entered the list: that of Lord MacLaurin, who has declared his innings closed at the England and Wales Cricket Board. An interesting thought, because the Tory-supporting ex-Tesco chief also walked as chairman of UK Sport when the then incoming sports minster, Tony Banks, said he was someone with whom he could not do business. Ministers may have changed but is the good Lord now politically acceptable?

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

I thought about getting into my car and driving it into a brick wall. It was that serious. England's sprint star Darren Campbell reveals how he came back from

the brink of suicide over personal problems to become a medal hero in Manchester... Nobody is going to go broke running these Games. Sport

England chief David Moffett expresses confidence

in the city's book-keeping ability... We were out at

Salford Quays for dinner on Friday at a fine restaurant called Choice. Brendan Foster gets in a free plug on the supposedly plug-free BBC.