Yesterday, I met one of India’s leading bureaucrats. He looked mighty peeved.u00a0“What’s pissing you off, Mr Bureaucrat?,” I asked with trepidation.

“Let me tell you why I’m peeved. One hundred and sixty six of us went to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. For the 2012 London Games they have cut down the numbers and are sending only 10 officials. That too some ex-Olympians who know nothing about modern sport. I don’t know how to face my wife, who has a long Selfridges shopping list for my daughter’s wedding. It is mighty unfair.”