Sporting glory? We're doing fine now, without you baby

By '89, the only enjoyment I got out of sports day was tying limbs with a boy called Gary Watkins for the three-legged race. And by high school, I'd given up on participation altogether and opted to tidy the PE cupboard.

I was good at other stuff though (English, art, flirting), but that went unnoticed because I failed to make the netball team. Not that I'm bitter.

Left at the back of the classroom, found in the library at lunch, when the end of term awards were dished out, my bum remained firmly stuck to the hall floor. After all, there were no prizes for neatest handwriting or most creatively adorned locker.

In contrast, the other half – a complete all-rounder – will only be remembered for his athletic prowess, despite being better at physics, maths, graphic design and pretty much everything else.

On leaving school, he hasn't played a day's competitive sport since. He has, however, gone on to secure a good job, flexing his intellectual muscles.

On meeting up with old school mates, they still talk about 'that goal/try/slam dunk'. I've never heard them mention 'that essay/experiment/equation.

It's the same story in pubs and homes across the land: we place so much emphasis on sporting success and so little on brilliance in other fields.

Ironic since, as a nation, sport isn't an area we excel in anymore.

Now I know next to nothing about sport but even I can see when we're on to a loser.

In light of England's early exit from the World Cup and other recent sporting fails, the solution is, apparently, to ramp up the level of competitive sport in state schools.

Really, is that what we need? More sports-obsessed youngsters with little focus other than becoming the next Wayne Rooney?

Will it spawn a new David Beckham, Andy Murray or Jessica Ennis? Possibly – but is it worth putting all our eggs in one sporting basket?

Instead, why not shift the focus on what we're really good at?

Music, art, literature, food, fashion, technology, science . . . This little island has long dominated world arenas in all but sport.

We've churned out the cultural hits long before 1966 and will do so long after.

Macca, Mick, Weller, Winehouse, Adele, Vivienne Westwood, Heston, Bowie, J.K Rowling, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin. They're all ours.

You can keep your Messis, Ballotellis or Suarezs. Ten points if you can name another famous Uruguayan.

And yet it's sport that we repeatedly insist on investing in. In my school days, I was always well aware that funds were spent on hockey sticks not Pritt Stick. There'd be enough squash racquets for two each, yet too few musical instruments to make a racket.

And while it's easy to sneer at institutions like The BRIT School, its alumni has sold a combined estimated total of 65 million albums since it opened in 1990.

Meanwhile, Central Saint Martins spawned talent such as Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton and er, Jarvis Cocker.

I'm not sure any of our football clubs could boast cultivating the same quantity of home-grown talent.

So instead of supermarket voucher schemes to buy new sports equipment, how about funding paintbrushes, keyboards or Bunsen burners?

And let's inspire our little people to not just want to be a Premiership footballer or cricketer. Let's widen their horizons to include fields our great country truly excels in.

After all, the next Adele could be someone like you.

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