Snakes at the games – and how the langurs will save the day

WHAT would a major sporting event be without the preliminary hullabaloo about the venue? It won’t be ready; its cost has over-run; there are terrorists in the bushes; it’s too expensive.

Where’s the legacy? The voracious demands of 24-hour news have a lot to answer for.

We had it for the Athens Olympics, and for the World Cup in South Africa. It’s a constant refrain for Euro 2012, particularly in the Ukraine, and the leitmotif for London. Just about the only Olympiads which went smoothly were Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008. Who, now, remembers that the great pre-game scare for China two years ago was the killer smog? It didn’t happen.