Breaking down the barriers

By Rob Bonnet BBC Sport

Seen BBC Breakfast's Wimbledon coverage this year?

Gaby Roslin? Ben Elton? Alastair McGowan (or was it Greg Rusedski, Huw Edwards or David O'Leary?).

Deferential it is not. Fun it is.

Gaby breaks all the rules in an 0830-0900 BST behind-the-scenes look at the world's most famous tennis championship.

Presenters Barker (left) and Roslin do their thing

Good grief, she even walked on Centre Court one morning!

And BBC Sport's current coverage (digital interactive, Richardson versus Kournikova and Mac the Mouth) seems light years on now from the deferential silences of Dan Maskell.

It has doubtless shocked one or two blazers into spilling their gin-and-tonics in the All-England Club's members' lounge.

But it is a success with the majority of the viewers, who are certainly switching on to their late Breakfast as never before.

Which of course is the point. Not only for the BBC, but also for Wimbledon and the Lawn Tennis Association, which is seeking to re-invent the sport's image.

Less genteel English country garden-party, more inner city grunt, grit and grin.

And eventually, so the theory goes, New Tennis produces a British Venus Williams.

Venus: Our desire is a Brit as good

But the perception of tennis as an elitist sport remains.

How do we know? Because roughly 70% of you responding to an e-mail straw poll on John Inverdale's highlights programme said so.

The LTA says its agenda is pretty straight forward. It wants more players, starting at a younger age, playing more competitive tennis.

And so it argues that if Wimbledon in particular, and tennis in general, remain stuffy and inaccessible, too obsessed with tradition, too frightened of innovation, then the kids will not put their footballs to one side or look up from their computer games.

So far so good. But how far should the LTA go?

Its revolutionary wing no doubt wants a roof on Centre Court with a cement surface underneath, plus pop concerts inside to create a hip image and revenue for more coaching programmes.

Keep your fingers crossed for a British champion - now that would make a difference!

More gin-spluttering in the members' lounge no doubt, but the reactionary forces may have a point. Especially about grass.

Keep it.

Tennis needs variety of surfaces in the same way that cricket needs a Headingley green-top or a Barbados belter.

Without it, Wimbledon would be just another Grand Slam.

And keep it British. Keep the players' white dress-code, the strawberries and cream, the Pimms, even the jolly perseverance of the overnight queue for the show-courts.

A Centre Court roof? Well, yes, of course. If Japan can have the Sapporo Dome, then surely the All-England Club can cultivate and protect an area a fraction of the size? And/or install floodlights.

All this of course represents a modernising of British tennis' shop-window, while also allowing better value for the paying punters, but the real deal has to be made across the UK.

Solid foundations

It is no good turning on the kids through Wimbledon, only for them to be turned away from the gates of their local club.

So that is the key. Re-design at the top by all means, but it is the foundations that need the real attention.

Oh. And keep your fingers crossed for a British champion. Now that would make a difference!