Reasons To Be Cheerful: Mihir Bose

One good thing about this Olympics lark is that we get to see and hear more of this man - the grand panjandrum of BBC Sport, Mihir Bose. Did ever the BBC have a more unlikely sports correspondent than this portly, not young, staggeringly posh, shockingly intelligent, literate, well-dined and clubbable chap? Usually the sports types are lean, keen, permanently grinning more-or-less youngsters, with no character and no perceptible electrical activity between the ears. I doubt if Bose would have got the job if this thorough-going old-school English gent wasn't, improbable as it seems, 'Asian'. But the BBC is capable of sudden brainstorms whereby it appoints someone from outside its usual stock of clones and robots - someone, in other words, good, with something interesting to say. It happened when they made Jeff Randall - as un-BBC a figure as can be imagined - their big Business guy. The trouble is, such appointments - like Randall's - never last long. Let's enjoy Bose while we've got him.