Sky Sports football host Ed Chamberlin is now odds-on favourite to become the lead racing presenter for ITV when they launch their coverage next year.

Horse racing is former bookmaker spokesman Chamberlin’s first love — he is a close friend of ITV’s probable main pundit AP McCoy, whom he calls ‘Champ’. 

Sky Sports football host Ed Chamberlin has been tipped to join the line-up for ITV’s racing coverage

Chamberlin, pictured here with pundits Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville (right) on Monday Night Football 

Chamberlin’s enthusiastic style of hyping even the dullest of Premier League games would help ITV in selling racing to a wider audience.

ITV will not name their racing line-up until just before the start of Euro 2016 and they may delay until mid-July.

One of English sport’s most unlikely sponsorships is to end after 12 years with Germany’s Deutsche Bank deciding not to renew their support of Lord’s Cricket Ground.

MCC members were told at their AGM this week that the club expected to lose Deutsche Bank, who have come under new management, as a sponsor and had already started the search for a replacement. 

Financial services company Deutsche Bank will not renew their sponsorship deal with Lord’s Cricket Ground

Last year Deutsche Bank set up a working party to consider their future in the UK if the decision is made in June to leave the EU. But the German bankers haven’t waited for the referendum result to opt out of Lord’s.

MCC will consider having a title sponsor for one of their future new stands — with the JP Morgan Media Centre setting a precedent — but never for Lord’s itself.

BBC sports presenter Dan Walker, who doesn’t work on Sundays because of his religious beliefs, has been ‘reminded of BBC editorial guidelines’. 

This follows Football Focus host Walker using his personal Twitter account to promote Bounce energy snacks as well as Oliver Sweeney shoes.

BBC presenter Dan Walker has been criticised after using his Twitter account to promote goods

Former Professional Footballers’ Association chairman Clarke Carlisle, a reformed alcoholic, left the last Barclays player-of-the-month panel lunch on Thursday after the starter course for his own wellbeing.

Clarke knows the old-school Barclays gatherings have become legendary for the booze consumed at a lengthy lunch preceded by a quick selection process.

Former PFA chairman Clark Carlisle has taken commendable steps towards overcoming his alcoholism

BT Sport are still debating whether to show the Champions League final on YouTube, which would give the flagship match a bigger audience reach and provide a valuable database of potential subscribers. 

A peak of 1.7m watched Real Madrid’s victory over Manchester City this week.

Cristiano Ronaldo shoots in Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final win over Manchester City  

Lancashire cricket, whose committee decisions regularly upset county cricket’s biggest fan base, have done just that by reneging on a reciprocal arrangement with Notts, Essex, Hampshire and Warwickshire whereby members had free access to the other counties’ Championship games. 

This follows astute Lancashire fans taking up Notts membership as it worked out as a cheaper way of watching four-day cricket at Old Trafford. Lancashire called it ‘an unintended loophole’.

The shenanigans on the MCC committee have resulted in a blatant exploitation of a grey area in the rulebook to install former Civil Service heavyweight Sir Ian Magee as chairman of membership and general purposes.

This has infuriated the five other chairmanship candidates who the MCC main committee were initially not told about in their rush to bring Magee on board.

The MCC describe Magee as ‘by far the best candidate for the job’ but have effectively owned up to their cavalier approach by changing the selection procedure following the complaints.

Even former MCC president Phillip Hodson described the way Magee had been appointed as ‘flawed’.

Rory McIlroy namechecked Ireland’s Olympic golf leader Paul McGinley as one of the reasons why he prioritised the Rio tournament on his 2016 schedule rather than join Adam Scott and the other high-profile golfers who are opting out of the Games. 

McIlroy knows McGinley is preparing his Irish team with the same attention to detail he afforded the victorious European Ryder Cup team in 2014.

Rory McIlroy watches his chip shot on the 12th hole in the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship