AS EVER there appear to be a number of people missing the point when it comes to commenting on the big sporting issues.

When the British Olympic Association lost a court case to keep their lifetime ban for drugs cheats, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling again raised the question of sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar being available for selection for Team GB for the London 2012 Olympics.

Now I know little of how cycling works and the fact that Mark Cavendish has suggested Millar would be a bonus for the GB team suggests that I am wrong to assume that because we seem to win a sackful of medals at cycling events we don’t really need the Scot.

But when it comes to athletics you do have to wonder what is going on.

It was back in 2003 that Chambers was revealed to have tested positive for then newly discovered ‘designer steroid’ tetrahydrogestrinone.

Just going off on a tangent, if a drug is ‘designer’ does that mean you can get it in different colours or maybe even paisley pattern?

But to be serious, while the likes of Roger Black get all hot under the collar saying that cheats should be banned for good from the Olympics, I would like to ask what have sprint coaches been up to for the last decade?

For goodness sake Chambers was 34 last month and he missed two years of his career due to his ban, so why on earth is he still in the running (excuse the pun) for a Great Britain team place?

If we are developing top talent why isn’t Chambers lost down the British rankings somewhere behind umpteen superfast twentysomethings? Really his ‘availability’ should not even be an issue.

If we are that badly off, then bring back Darren Campbell who is only 38 and who I always felt was a much better sprinter – despite him being a Manchester United fan (albeit an unusual one in that he actually comes from Moss Side).

But the fact that we appear to be heading into the London spectacular considering attempting to outdo the likes of Usain Bolt and his Jamaican mates armed with a geriatric who needed drugs to boost his performance when he was younger, suggests that whatever we are paying the head coach of UK Athletics, Charles van Commenee, it is probably too much.