Not a peep from any party leader, or, as far as one can gather, any Parliamentary candidate, about its value to society or what role it might play in the British economy over the next five years.

Compare that to the last General Election in 2010, when they were all scrambling to climb aboard the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games bandwagon.

Then sport mattered. Now the question is whether it matters any more, yet its importance to the national psyche in terms of physical fitness and well-being surely should merit a line in any political manifesto.

And with major international events including the Rugby World Cup and the World Athletics Championships booked for the UK, surely the politicians have missed a trick by not trying to lure the sporting vote.

I suspect the Labour leader Ed Miliband, for one, would have gathered more street cred by engaging in a more coherent conversation with, say, Gary Lineker, Paula Radcliffe or Amir Khan rather than that anarchic sleazeball Russell Brand. Red card here for Red Ed, eh?

So where does sport go from here under the next Government? The first question must be who becomes Sports Minister, rarely a priority on any Prime Minister’s list of calls to be dialled the day after an election.

We might know by the weekend, and there are all sorts of imponderables depending on who - if anyone - is in power with a split decision seemingly inevitable according to the opinion polls.

Let’s examine the possible scenarios. Should the Conservatives form a Government, will the previous incumbent Helen Grant be re-appointed - assuming she retains her seat in Maidstone, where she has a 5,889 majority?

My personal view is that she grew into the job, doing things differently from higher-profile predecessors though there are those who would like to have heard her air more forthright views.

At least she had the bonus of being a former all-round sportswoman herself as a former junior judo champion, an athlete, and a hockey and tennis player.

Among her achievements were banging heads together at UK Sport and Sport England to effect a re-think over basketball's shameful loss of funding, and working with FA Advisory Board chair Heather Rabbatts to help create pathways for those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic [BAME] backgrounds to come through as coaches and administrators.

“I like her very much," says Labour's Kate Hoey, the first female Sports Minister.

"She obviously took time to get to grips with the intricacies of sport, which is hugely complicated business. It is not just being there as a cheerleader.

"She has clearly learned a lot from Hugh [Robertson] and I am pleased we had someone who knows the importance of supporting and nourishing the grass roots.”

Sentiments echoed by Robertson - now Sir Hugh - who was always going to be a hard act to follow as Sports Minister. "Helen has quietly done a fantastic job of rolling up her sleeves and getting on with supporting and encouraging grassroots sport,” he told insidethegames.

“This sort of work rarely attracts the headlines but it makes a huge difference to all the volunteers and participants on the ground."

When you look around the Tory ranks there are few other contenders, although one name I frequently hear mentioned is that of a fellow female Kent MP, Tracey Crouch, who also has a healthy majority of over 6,000 in Chatham and Aylesford.

Crouch is only 39, and is a qualified FA coach who runs a girls’ youth football, team. One of the things I like about her is that she voted against press regulation, so clearly she has a mind of her own. 

Would Cameron change a winning team? Fickleness is a common denominator in both sport and politics, which is why in the event of a Labour victory the Shadow Sports Minister Clive Efford cannot be certain of moving into Grant’s chair at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

First he has to retain his seat in Eltham, where last time he had a majority of just 1,663 and where he faces a strong challenge from UKIP.

The former London cabbie, a strong supporter of grassroots sport as well as his beloved Millwall FC, would make a decent fist of the job as the most down-to-earth Sports Minister since the late Tony Banks.

Yet he might be pondering the fate of another well-established Labour Shadow Sports Minister, Tom Pendry, who seemed a shoo-in when Tony Blair was first elected as PM in 1997 but was astonishingly gazumped by Banks.

Fortunately for the sometimes fiery Efford there appears to be no Banks waiting in the Labour wings.

But what if political deals are struck? Might Miliband offer the sports ministry to the Scottish National Party (SNP) as a sweetener for the support he says he doesn’t want but surely would take to grab power?

Seems improbable, but as we say, strange things happen when the political chips are down. One possible sports-loving SNP candidate could be Brendan O’Hara, 51, who is contesting Argyll and Bute and is an independent, award-winning television producer and has worked for Sky Sports.

And what about another Liberal Democrats coalition pact with either of the two main parties? Not much chance of a surprise choice here.

John Leech was the Lib Dem spokesperson in the last parliament but may be unseated in his Manchester Withington constituency with a majority of under 2,000. He is a member of the Parliamentary football team and has been a Manchester City season ticket holder for over 30 years. Unlikely to make the subs bench.

So far the election campaign has been about as exciting as the anti-climactic Mayweather-Pacquiao affair turned out to be although Thursday’s contest, seemingly headed for a split decision, certainly won’t be as one-sided.

So let’s pitch a bouncer into the mix just to liven things up.

Could the next Sports Minister, whoever he or she may be, actually come from outside the House of Commons?

I hear whispers that some Parliamentarians, mainly in the Labour ranks, would be keen to see that peerless peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson perform the role from the upper house.

There are several precedents for Government Ministers coming from the House of Lords and the bold Baroness is well-equipped for the role.

She has always been one of our most courageous sports personalities, both in her endeavours and achievements in sport but also in forthrightly expressing her opinions. Elevation to the House of Lords has given those views even greater gravitas.

Despite being an ardent Labour supporter all her life she sits as a cross-bencher “because you can vote with your heart...in any case, I believe sport should be non-political.”

Ever combative, she has long been highly critical of the way sport is administered and could be the ideal person to sort it out.

“I still get frustrated at the hierarchical order of British sport, the school of ‘We’ll do it this way because we’ve always done it this way’” she says. “They could do so much more, not with money but with attitude. Sport needs people at the top who really understand what it is about.

”The Olympics were a game-changer for British sport but now it is up to those sports themselves, MPs in Parliament and those of us in the House of Lords who speak on sport like myself, Sebastian Coe, Colin Moynihan, Sue Campbell and now, Karren Brady together with people on the governing bodies to drive those changes forward. We just cannot accept that things are going to continue to happen in the way they have."

The record-breaking Paralympian, scandalously blocked from becoming chair of Sport England because she clashed with the then Culture Secretary Maria Miller on disability issues, is urging the next Government to get to grips with the UK's shocking levels of physical activity, calling them a killer that can no longer be ignored.

Last week she was appointed as the new independent chair of not-for-profit health body ukactive, which campaigns for physical activity to be central in improving public health by getting more people, more active, more often.

Around a third of adults in England - 12.5 million people - fail to achieve 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week. Public health experts have estimated that 37,000 deaths per year from illnesses including cancers, stroke and dementia could be avoided if people were more active.

She says: “For too long, physical activity has been - in the Government’s eyes - the poor cousin of sport and overshadowed by obesity. The work of ukactive up until this point has thrown into stark relief the fact that inactivity is a killer, and inaction on this issue is no longer an option.

"With the formation of a new Government shortly upon us, there has never been a better time to shout the message of more people, more active, more often loud and clear.”

Spoken like a true sports person. Or perhaps a future Sports Minister?