Olympics 2008

Cricket has not been a part of the Olympics for the last 108 years. Thankfully, the other sport I follow is one in which Great Britain have enjoyed plenty of success.

I've been working for BBC Sport since 2001, travelling to South Africa for the Cricket World Cup in 2003, to the Caribbean for last year's competition - including a fortnight in Guyana which I'd rather not go into again - and plenty of England matches at home in between.

But my great passion is rowing, a passion that my mum tells me began at the age of three, when I watched on TV as Cambridge sank in the 1978 Boat Race. That summer, I had my first chance to sink when I took a ride in the cox's seat with my dad's crew.

Watching those at the highest level, rowing highlights for me include the Searle brothers' victory in the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 (and cox Garry Herbert's subsequent waterworks), witnessing - while on holiday in France - Steve Redgrave's return to the four at the 1997 World Championships, and sitting in a room full of screaming rowers to watch that crew's triumph in Sydney three years later.

My own rowing achievements are decidedly further down the scale, with the best of the worst an unsuccessful first-round appearance at Henley Royal Regatta several years ago.

Since then I have concluded that while those who can, do, those who can't, coach, so can be found most weekends in a motor launch on the River Thames, telling other people how to do it.

During the week I am part of the team responsible for running the BBC website's Olympics and Olympic sport pages as well as this blog.