Inside Lines: Jowell the target as Hoey gets her gun

Sport may not have a seat in the Cabinet - though we hear whispers that the new Tory leader, Michael Howard, may change that should he ever come to power - but it does have a Cabinet of its own. The Sports Cabinet, who comprise sports ministers from the home countries, representatives of the various sports councils and UK Sport, with Tessa Jowell in the chair, meet occasionally to discuss matters of sporting state. However, their latest edict seems to have caused more ripples of discontent than most of those which emanate after Blair and Brown have sniped at each other across the table at No 10. It has certainly angered Kate Hoey, the hunting, fishing and shooting-supporting former sports minister, who these days peppers Government policies with a well-trained shotgun in the best traditions of a gamekeeper turned poacher. Hoey is displeased that shooting, one of Britain's best-run and most successful sports, has not been included in the list of 10 activities which are now decreed suitable for "one-stop" public funding. Nor has modern pentathlon, which, she points out, has brought Britain two Olympic gold medals and has a decent chance of making it a third in Athens. In fact, rather like the celebrity circuit, there is now an A list and a B list for sports, plus of course the self-elected "Super League" gang of four - football, cricket, rugby and tennis. The Government insist there is "nothing particularly sinister" in one-stop planning, which effectively means priority long-term funding for those sports considered to have met the criteria for modernisation, but Hoey accuses Jowell of "adding insult to injury by abandoning a large number of Olympic sports to fight over the scraps". Pistols at dawn?

Time for Lewis to quit, says Maloney

As Lennox Lewis ponders his future there is sage advice from the man who guided his career for 12 years before their acrimonious split two years ago. Frank Maloney reckons it is time for the world heavyweight champion to bow out gracefully. "I say this with the best of intentions. He shouldn't fight again because he has no reason to. If I was still working with him I'd say, 'Lennox, you have nothing left to prove. The only people who want you to fight again are those whose only means of making a living is out of you'. He's 38 years old now, and while the mind may be willing, the body doesn't want to go through what it has to go through. If you fight on you can only let yourself and your legacy down." The likelihood is that Lewis will now call it a day, unlike his diminutive former manager, who intends to carry on punching both in the boxing and political arenas, challenging Ken Livingstone in next year's London mayoral battle.

Is saving the Palace now beyond our Ken?

The Norwich Union Grand Prix is still listed hopefully by the IAAF for Crystal Palace on 30 July next year, even though, according to promoter Alan Pascoe, "the staff there still don't know whether or not they will have collected their redundancy by then". Athletics anxiously awaits guarantees about the venue's future, and this will be a crucial month. We understand Sport England and Bromley Council have agreed draft proposals and a £10m subsidy for redevelopment but need another funding source before this can be implemented. Unless Ken Livingstone can really put some money where his mouth is and persuade English Heritage or the London Development Agency to stump up, it is on the cards that the 120 Palace staff will be getting theirs.

Prompted by the recent doping scandals, the International Association of Athletics Federations say they are considering reintroducing four-year bans for drugs offenders.

Jolly good. Butembarrassing for their president, the Senegalese judge Lamine Diack who needs to get equally tough with his own government, who are among those who have not paid their subs to the World Anti-Doping Agency. This means, unless they cough up, that any gold-medal winners from Senegal cannot have their anthem played in Athens, nor will their nation's flag be flown. There are even more notable backsliders, among them the United States. Mind you, at the rate their athletes are flunking tests, there will be hardly any left to salute the Stars and Stripes. For once, the usual response from our Treasury that "the cheque's in the post" happens to be true. Britain's £300,000 contribution has been paid, which must be a relief to the Wada treasurer, Craig Reedie, chairman of the British Olympic Association.

Is London's Olympic bid likely to be warmed by an Indian summer?

The Commonwealth Games Federation gather in Montego Bay on Thursday (odd how international sports organisations never seem to slum it) to choose the venue for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It is a fight between New Delhi, from the subcontinent which has never hosted them, and Hamilton, Ontario, from a nation which has held them four times. Britain must hope New Delhi is successful, as a vote for Hamilton would be seen by influential Afro-Asian members of the IOC as keeping the Games in the old white Commonwealth club, which has staged 15 out of 17. This would hardly induce their support for a London Olympics two years later. Geopolitics is now the name of the Games.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

I think we've lost the respect of others in our event. If we had an aura, it's gone. Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell says he and rowing partner Matthew Pinsent are no longer oarsome after their World Championship defeat... No other country divides itself into four quarters in order to lose to others. Former sports minister Tony Banks still believes Britain should be United in football... When you leave boxing it's like taking your heart out and putting it in a drawer. Frank Bruno.