Usually news of the appointment of a politician, or ex- politician, to meaningful office in sport triggers a deep groan from this corner.

But I make an exception in the case of Andy Reed, the former Labour MP for Loughborough who has just been named as the new chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA), the CCPR that was.

It is an inspired move. Reed is one of the good guys of politics, who should have been a Sports Minister but for the respective intransigence of Blair and Brown,

He knows the subject inside out but was overlooked first for Richard Caborn and then Gerry Sutcliffe despite his outstanding credentials.

Reed narrowly lost his seat at the last Election, unfortunate for him but rather fortunate for sport as it has freed him up to succeed the doughty Brigid Simmons, who steps down in July baving served the maximum term in office.

She, together with chief executive Tim Lamb, the former head honcho at the England Cricket Board, and her immediate predecessor Howard Wells, did a sterling job in resuscitating the old CCPR, which had become increasingly anachronistic since the heady and purposeful days of the well-remembered Nigel Hook. It is re-emerging as the potent ginger group it once was.

Reed, with his genuine feel for sport at all levels, will enhance its reputation and effectiveness. A former runner, volleyball and tennis player who still turns out for his Midlands rugby club, Birstall, at 50, he is popular with sports leaders and principled enough to have resigned from the Government over the Iraq war.

The one-time aide to Kate Hoey shares the same passion for community and schools sport.

Reed was always a strident voice for sport in his 13 years in Parliament, once telling fellow MPs to run a mile – which they did in support of Sport Relief.

He chaired East Midlands Sport in 2000–2003 and also chairs the National Strategic Partnership for Volunteers in Sport.

Not a bad sporting CV for a politico who is now director of his own advocacy company, SajeImpact, advising sports bodies on their dealings with Government.

He is also a committed Christian working for the Bible Society on their engagement in China.

He says: "It's a cliché in these situations to say what a great honour it is to be asked to chair an organisation like the SRA – but it genuinely is. Sport plays an incredibly important part in our society and, as of July, I will be leading an organisation that brings together no fewer than 320 national governing and representative bodies, 150,000 clubs and millions of participants. That really is something to look forward to."


Reed's popularity in sporting circles will, stand him in good stead for the role leading what considers itself sport's own 'parliament'.

Getting back to the real thing, I admit to emitting one of those groans precisely a year ago on hearing that the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was to be Jeremy Hunt, someone with no known affection for sport and whose only attributed contribution to athleticism was dancing the lambada.

Yet he was to be the boss of the eminently capable Sports Minister Hugh Robertson at the DCMS and ostensibly in political charge of overseeing the greatest sporting event Britain has ever experienced, the 2012 Olympics.

Oh dear, I thought. Another Tory toff (at least I think that's the T-word I used).There will be trouble ahead...

But I have changed my mind. Hunt is ok.

The thing about sport is that quite often when you come at it from outside it has the propensity to grab you by the proverbials.

That seems to have happened in Hunt's case.

For him the road to Damascus has been via Stratford.

I think he has fallen in love with the game - and the Games.

I was certainly impressed when he was guest of the Sports Lobby Group (a collection of we journos who scribble on sports politics) at a informal London dinner recently.

He talked cogently and quite passionately about the problems of football governance,his aspirations for an all-time best Olympics and of his desire to make the revamped UK School Games his own baby, a resounding success.

The Charterhouse-educated son of a naval officer admits: "When I first took the DCMS brief in opposition it is true to say that the thing I knew least about was sport. But I have found I enjoy it the most of all my portfolio.

"It has completely blown me away, especially since becoming aware how incredibly powerful it is as a tool to inspire young people. I now have the zeal of a convert.

"I would never claim I am going to win a pub quiz on sport but I hope that people will be able to see my commitment to it by what I have done."

An example of that commitment is that to rectify virtually knowing sweet FA about football he has undertaken a refereeing course and is now awaiting the signal to take charge of his first match - will he thinks is likely to be a schoolgirl game.

Hunt is said to be one of the most ambitious men in the Coalition team and there is no certainty he will be in the same job when the Olympics come around -though he says he wants to be.

Rumours persist that he is about to be promoted to replace under-fire Andrew Lansley as Health Secretary. By coincidence this was a move made by his Labour predecessor Andy Burnham just as he was shaping up as a decent DCMS overlord.

We shall see,

Incidentally it was Hunt who, I am told, insisted on Labour's Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell remaining on the LOCOG board, believing a political balance essential and that she had a worthy contribution to make.

And according to insiders it was he, aided by Robertson, who played a pivotal role in getting the partial about-turn over the plans to slash funding for school sports.

Reed and Hunt may come from different sides of the parliamentary, social and sporting spectrum but they seem two of a kind.

It certainly makes a change to be able to say that a couple of sport's leading men from the political stage seem to be playing the game.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.