Stand by your beds chaps! Labour has a new games mistress. Harriet Harman's appointment as sport's overlady on the Opposition front bench seems to have sneaked the radar. Perhaps with good reason.

Ed Miliband's selection of his daunting as shadow secretary for Culture, Media and Sport will raise eyebrows, and doubtless a few hackles in the sporting community.

"Harperson" has no track record of any previous interest in sporting issues but this did not deter her going into bat at Lord's last week, telling the Business in Sport and Leisure annual conference that while on holiday in India last year "it took me twice as long as any other nationality to get through passport control and baggage checks because all they wanted to talk to me about was the cricket. It was quickly evident that they knew more about English cricket than I did." And probably any other aspect of sport for that matter.

But that's politics for you, and politics is what she is about, as she has wasted no time in putting the boot into Government sports policies, claiming everything good that is now happening in sport is all down to the last administration.

Another Harman gem: "In Peckham, they walk tall when Rio Ferdinand reminds them that he came from Peckham." Not if they're a supporter of nearby Millwall, dear, as her newly-appointed sporting sidekick could inform her.

Clive Efford, MP for Eltham, is now Labour's Shadow Sports Minister. Not only is he a Millwall fan but a qualified referee. His whistle should come in handy.

It will be fascinating to see how Harman, now nominally overseeing Labour's Olympics policy at the DCMS, gets on with Tessa Jowell, who remains in the Cabinet as Shadow Olympics Minister.

All this must bring a wry smile to the face of Kate Hoey, the best Sports Minister we've had since Denis Howell, who was brutally booted into touch by Tony Blair after some calculated earblowing by his insidious henchman Alastair Campbell on behalf of the equally insidious football lobby, whom Hoey had the effrontery to challenge. She could be doing Harman's new job with far more credibility and background knowledge.

So could someone who was once Hoey's right hand man when she was Sports Minister. As her Parliamentary aide he shared the same passion for community and schools sport.

Andy Reed is one of the nice guys of politics. Which is probably why he lost his seat the last election. Ironically he represented Loughborough, whose electorate have much to thank sport for. They should have known better.

Had he still been at Westminster surely he would have been the ideal choice to head up the Opposition's sports team. He says, somewhat diplomatically that he finds Harman's appointment "quite interesting" while Efford is "a good guy."

For me, the jury's out on Harman (pictured), but the good news is that the loss of his seat meant that Andy was handy to become the new chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, (the Central Council for Physical Recreation that was) in succession to the doughty Brigid Simmonds.

With his 13 years Parliamentary experience and a genuine feel for sport at all levels has already begun to enhance its reputation. A former runner, volleyball and tennis player who still turns out for his Midlands rugby club, Birstall, at 50, he is popular with sports leaders and principled enough to have resigned from the Government over the Iraq war.

With chief executive Tim Lamb, the former head honcho at the England Cricket Board, and the ubiquitous Howard Wells, former UK and Northern Ireland FA chief executive as deputy chair the refurbished Alliance has been given a new lease of life .

The old CCPR had become increasingly anachronistic since the heady and purposeful days of the well-remembered and much lamented Nigel Hook. It is re-emerging as the potent ginger group it once was.

Reed tells me: "It's a cliché in these situations to say what a great honour it is to be asked to chair an organisation like the S&RA – but it genuinely is. Sport plays an incredibly important part in our society and, I am leading an organisation that brings together no fewer than 322 national governing and representative bodies, 150,000 clubs and millions of participants."

Literally representing everything from bowls to bridge, football to tchouckball, and activities like movement and dance and cheerleading which will play a role in the cultural aspects of 2012.  "Every sport you've heard of and a few you haven't," says Reed.

As the CCPR - so often confused with the letters on the vests of athletes in the days of the Soviet Union - and now the S&RA they have been an effective if relatively unsung body. As Lamb says: "It it frustrates me that we've been around for over 70 years and still so many people don't really know what we do, which is why we are  endeavouring to raise our profile.  We have put ourselves about a bit and back on the map."

The trouble is, much of what the Alliiance does as the "parliament of sport"  can be eye-glazing for the public prints, rather like that of the English Institute of Sport, another nuts and bolts operation that is worthy and essential but no-one really wants to read about.

And in terns of sports governance the S&RA  is overshadowed by the two Goverment quangos, UK Sport and Sport England, and the British Olympic Association.

"It is a tough sporting environment out there in terms of financing and funding," says Reed (pictured). "Much of what we do doesn't excite the public until the impact is apparent."

So what does the S&RA do? Well, they organise campaigns from their Victoria offices aimed at supporting the sporting community on varying issues like the work of volunteers, tax, VAT, betting in sport, playing fields, women's sport, planning permissions, the increase in police charges at sports events and licensing matters. Reed cites an example of his rugby club which even has to fork out for an annual music licence because some of the player bring in their Ipods to play in the dressing room. The S&RA fought a successful battle to get the proposed fee increase for all clubs halved.

MPs are actively lobbied to oppose things that might harm sport and encouraged to support schemed that are beneficial.

The body's raison d'etre is fighting sport's corner from, all angles and it is estimated that over the past two years clubs have been saved over £2 million in taxes and levies.

"One thing we keep banging on about is Olympic Legacy," says Reed. "We are immensely supportive of 2012 but critical of the amount of legacy that will be left for sport."

He adds: "If we didn't exist you would have to invent us because people in sport need an independent voice. We're not hamstrung by close ties with government and we are not dominated by the Big Five of sport. We can advise on the governance of sport and also be critical of the way some sports are run – and sometimes we are.

"Our meetings give sports leaders a chance to get together, compare experiences and have a moan if they like. Some of the less known sports have nowhere else to go. They see us as their as their representative in the big sporting world."

After three months in the role Reed admits: "I've found the politics of sport a lot harder than the politics of Westminster."

Something upon which Ms Harman, our new sports czarina, may care to ponder.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.