SUNDAY EVENING PREFERRED VIEWING

On Sunday evening, the BBC will broadcast the SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR live and direct from the NEC in Birmingham. That in itself is a departure from tradition, which has hitherto seen the programme staged at the BBC Television Centre in London. More innovations this year include the fact that the 10 nominees for the award have been drawn up by a secretive group meeting behind closed doors and allegedly containing representatives of sports writers, sports people and the ubiquitous `general public.` Shame they remain anonymous.

So its hardly surprising that this year`s nominations contain no-one from leading sports such as football, rugby or athletics. Not enough pc representation, I imagine. Instead we are being invited to phone in with our votes on Sunday evening and choose between the following list of sports `personalities`:-

- Darren Clarke (Ryder Cup Golfer) : Joe Calzaghe and/or Ricky Hatton (Pugilism) : Jensen Button (F1 winner after 100 attempts) : Nicole Cooke (Winner of Women`s Tour de France) : Monty Panesar (Cricketer currently failing to get into England Test team) : Zara Phillips (Horse person - born to it) : Phil "The Power" Taylor (known in the world of darts for being marginally slimmer than Fat Belly who, in turn, was marginally slimmer than Even Fatter Belly) : Beth Tweddle (Gymnastics) and Andy Murray (Tennis adolescent.)

Now, I have no doubt that they are all worthy representatives of their particular sport or pastime, but as I have yet to be exposed to the `personality` of most of them, I feel at a disadvantage when asked to cast my vote (at premium rates, no doubt.) So I don`t think I`ll bother. In fact, the programme these days is a bit like that two-week long snooker event...or the Eurovision Song Contest, when all you really need to do to find out the winner is to watch the last five minutes. That way, I can avoid the cringing embarrassment of sitting through a singularly uninspiring retrospect of our sporting year all lovingly presented by BBC `presenters` who have come straight off the shelves of Ikea.

The BBC test card could well be more entertaining.