It was held to coincide with celebrations to mark the arrival of the Queen's Baton Relay in London, and as an opportunity to share ideas and promote the Team England brand ahead of next month's Commonwealth Games and other upcoming events. 

The Commonwealth Games gives English athletes the opportunity to display their "Englishness", as illustrated by divers Tom Daley and Max Brick at Delhi 2010 ©Getty Images

"The Commonwealth Games is different from the Olympic Movement, it's not Team GB its Team England, Team Scotland Team Wales etcetera," Commonwealth Games England chief executive Adam Paker told insidethegames.

"We feel we have a very different identity within that.

"We're lucky in a sense that we're the biggest within them nation's population wise meaning that many of the big names from British sport are English, and we're hoping to put a quite a few of them in our team.

"But we are different.

"And we want to assert that different identity.

"We think 'Englishness' is a rather understated identity which we can help to crystallise."

Commonwealth Games England chief executive Adam Paker (right) wanted to use the breakfast in London to emphasise the "Englishness" that the organisation, and team, represents heading into Glasgow 2014 ©ITG



Nick Evans, sponsorship director at Commonwealth Games England and organiser of the event, expanded the theme, telling insidethegames that Team England is "more representative of England as a nation, as a sports team, than any other sports team out there.

He added: "We're 50 per cent male, 50 per cent female.

"We have 12 per cent Para-athletes as part of the team; English Asian as part of the team.

"Some of them work full-time, around 20 per cent.

"Like your lawn bowls, your shooters, a lot of them work as a living and so not all of them are UK Sport funded.

"So what you find is that we're a really diverse mix and I think that lends itself to what is a modern England in a way that rugby or football or cricket doesn't do.

"And that's one of our strengths as a multi-sport team because we do represent multiple sports but we are also multi-cultural and multi-gender, so that's more inclusive in terms of what we'd put out there as a positive patriotic message.

"We are England.

"We are truly England as a country.

"We genuinely are.

"And we're really motivated by these messages and these brand values."

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