The new normal which is actually the abnormal has been pretty dreadful for us all, some much worse than others of course. And sport is among the things we love which has had its lights virtually punched out by the pandemic.

Some games have been played on to a fairly limited degree and in terms of performance, because of the situation, there’s really nothing much to shout about. When the British Government allowed a tiny number of spectators in to watch sports like football and latterly boxing they wanted restraint on the vocal chords lest the wretched virus evaded the mandatory masks.

At least in sport one thing remains constant. Come what may the SPOTY showy – the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Award, both nationally and internationally must go on and it remains on, on Sunday (December 20) albeit in a truncated and virtual form.

And as usual it has fermented a bit of a controversy. The WBC heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, having looked at the shortlist of six declared in the parlance of another hit TV programme "Get me out of here!"

He wants none of it, even though he is nominated because Tyson being Tyson is also being cantankerous, no doubt mindful of the time when the BBC jocked him off the list because of his errant behaviour. Now he says he doesn’t need any more honours or plaudits - he is the people’s champion and that’s good enough for him so SPOTY can go hang.

The BBC insist on keeping him in so Fury urges the viewers not to vote for him. But knowing how perverse joe public can be you can be sure that thousands still will. So what happens if he wins and doesn’t turn up to receive the award? Will it be seen as a Fury faux pas or another Beeb boob?

Such a scenario seems unlikely for by all accounts motor racing driver Lewis Hamilton is a shoo-in to lift the trophy after equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles and 91 Grand Prix victories with his fourth consecutive championship in 2020.

But I am afraid I have a problem with Hamilton. I am sure he is a decent bloke who does many charitable deeds, and it is not that he is a tax exile living in Monaco, nor that his "personality" is unfortunately as flat as a punctured tyre. No, it is more down to what is under the bonnet of the phenomenal Mercedes he drives which surely is a good 50 per cent, or more, of his success.

This remarkable engine and other state-of-the-art goodies have assisted him into a record number of pole positions where, more often than not, he simply puts his foot down, noses into the lead and resolutely stays ahead of the processional pack. You can tell I am no petrol head.

Jockey Hollie Doyle broke her own record for the number of winners ridden by a British woman in a year including a historic double on British Champions’ Day she became the first woman to ride five winners on the same card and claimed her first victory at Royal Ascot. Good on her. But should she win the award are they also going to pin some rosettes on the manes of the steeds she urged on to carry her past the post?

The others on the list are Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson who lead his team to their first Premier League title since 1990 and that old standby snooker wizard Ronnie O’Sullivan, who at least has some pizzazz about him.

They are certainly worthy of inclusion in an otherwise barren year for British sport- as well as sport on the BBC.

Personally my vote would have gone to Fury, not just because I am a boxing aficionado, but his dramatic demolition of Deontay Wilder, supposedly the hardest puncher in boxing history, was the most spectacular individual performance of the year.

Mind you had the BBC not been so po-faced and excluded the England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford from their list I would have automatically plumped for him.

I am a firm believer in what a sports figure does off the field, and how he or she conduct themselves in public is as important as what they do on it. Rashford’s brilliant campaign to get free school meals during the lockdowns and holidays for underprivileged kids captivated the nation and his dignified bit of Boris-bashing delighted us all, whatever our politics.

What’s more he performed capably for his club and country and he should have been included – and should have won.

In the same vein another star with a heart as big as his persona, Leeds Rhinos rugby league legend Kevin Sinfield yesterday completed the incredible accomplishment of running seven marathons in a week, all under four hours, on successive mornings to raise awareness and much needed cash (£1.7 million/$2.27 million/€1.87 million) for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Quite fantastic.

He also did it in support of his old teammate Rob Burrow, the former Rhinos number seven who is in a wheelchair suffering from this terrible affliction.

I hope this will not go unrecognised by the BBC or those Whitehall mandarins who dish out the Honours List gongs at the end of the year.

I believe what Rashford and Sinfield have done is as worthy as the sporting achievements of any of the BBC’s half-dozen hopefuls.

Mind you, as my son dryly remarked to me: "If you had your way you would’ve had Captain Sir Tom included in that list for walking around his garden."

There’s a thought, though it may well be that the BBC will ask that venerable centurion to present the trophy at the ceremony in Salford. And perhaps after the sort of year of angst and anguish that sport has suffered it should be renamed the COVID Cup.

So to the Beeb’s award for the World Sport Star of the year and to be frank some of the named candidates are, so to speak, even virtually unknown outside their own country or sport. And we must hope Gary Lineker doesn’t get his tonsils in a twist should he have to announce the winner as one Khabib Nurmagomedov, a 32-year-old Russian is considered to be the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time.

Otherwise take your pick from another six-strong list which includes the Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duuplantis who broke the world record twice in a week in February, US basketball star LeBron James. named the most valuable player in the NBA finals, US Masters golf champion Dustin Johnson, the PGA Tour player of the year or two women, Wendie Renard, captain of the Lyon team which won the Women's Champions League for a fifth straight year and Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor, who continues to dominate her sport which, it has to be said has made its presence felt but still has a way to go before it makes anything like the impact of the men.

So there we are. Which begs the question where have all the big personalities gone, the maestros, the virtuosos, those who truly transcend their sport? The Muhammad Ali’s, the Jack Nicklaus’s, the Martina Navratilova’s, the Daley Thompson’s, and the Carl Lewis’s?

Yes we still have in football the fading greatness of Ronaldo and Messi but in their twilight years are they a match for the magic of Maradona or the perfection of Pele? I think not.

Here’s another interesting thing. In both of the BBC’s shortlists all but two, Hollie Doyle and Armand Duplantis, are over 30. One, Ronnie O’Sullivan, is 44.

Where are the young superstars of today, Indeed, are there any?

We know that 2020 has not been a vintage year for sport for very obvious reasons, not least the Tokyo Olympics that weren’t. Even so the thoughts persist that while we are hopefully, getting our coronavirus jabs sport itself could do with an injection of what SPOTY is supposed to be about: Personality-with a capital, P. And some flair from the young.