Half a century ago, New Zealand's cricketers were preparing to begin their tour of Britain at the picturesque Saffrons ground in Eastbourne on the English south coast.

Today's announcement about the formation of World Boxing, a new international governing body established to try to gain control of the sport at Olympic level, may seem like an unprecedented event, but it is in fact just history repeating itself.

"'Fings ain't what they used to be," so goes the Cockney refrain, and it could not be more appropriate in the case of boxing.

Unless we get some warmer weather soon, it is going to be a wet and possibly woebegone start to the club cricket season in my corner of the English Home Counties.

Budge up W(indy). Move over A(ltitude). There's a new asterisk in town: GWA - Global Warming Assisted.

German Thomas Bach, Ukrainian Vadym Guttsait and Russian Stanislav Pozdnyakov - three men who are no strangers to wielding a sword on the grandest sporting stage - find themselves at the centre of a row that could leave Olympic qualification for their beloved fencing in tatters.

This week marked a significant milestone on the road to the European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023 with the traditional lighting of the Flame of Peace.

France is busy working on preparations to stage its first Summer Olympic Games for a century in Paris next year. There are well-documented issues related to security and inflation for organisers to tackle in the build-up.

A hundred years ago this week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took the momentous decision to award the 1932 Olympic Games to Los Angeles.

We reported recently on the exciting news that the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the centrepiece of London 2012, was to host a major exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the incomparable David Bowie.

With aficionados such as Ernest Hemingway and Bob Mortimer, the British comedian, angling must be one of the more popular sports not to feature on the Olympic programme.

I hadn't assumed I would win, of course I hadn't. But I thought I'd be up there. When "Ready...Steady..Go" was shouted out, however, and I set off with the other dads at my children's school sports day race, I soon had to configure myself to a more mundane reality. Also-ran.

When I was elected President of World Aquatics almost two years ago in Doha, I promised to support all athletes and give them the maximum opportunity to achieve the best possible outcome from their sporting careers.

If it was reassurance boxers wanted from this week's International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting over their preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics, it hardly delivered on that front.

There were two historic sporting events in London last weekend, including the men's university boat race on the River Thames which continued a tradition begun in 1829.