Progress isn’t always a good thing – as the BBC proved this week in their coverage of Wimbledon.

In dropping John Inverdale, the presenter of Today at Wimbledon for the past 14 years, old Auntie rebranded the programme Wimbledon 2day and put the ubiquitous Clare Balding in his place.

Yes, Balding is much less likely to suggest Marion Bartolli was “never going to be a looker” as Inverdale infamously did two years ago and she is unquestionably an exceptional presenter.

But the result, as we could have all have predicted from the text-speak name of the programme and the fact it was to be “hosted in front of a live audience of fans”, was a shocking dumbing down of a programme which – over the years – had previously shown Match of the Day how highlights programmes should be done.

Your Local Guardian:

Missed: John Inverdale fronted the BBC's Wimbledon coverage for 14 years

Do you remember this great demand for sports programmes to be presented like Top Gear without the cars?

The only thing worse than giving publicity to the kind of idiots Sky interview outside football grounds on transfer deadline day can be showing off the fashion crimes of posh idiots in orange jackets on prime-time television.

You had to feel sorry for John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport – both former Wimbledon champions and two of the best sporting pundits going – for having to try to make sense of the sport among this sorry charade.

Was this some kind of sporting white flag being issued by the BBC on the day it was announced it had lost rights to the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

A £920m deal means Discovery, owners of Eurosport, have scooped the European rights to the Olympics and this is dangerous ground.

The BBC excelled itself during London 2012, with 2,500 hours of live coverage, but just 200 hours must be made free-to-air from 2022.

Discovery’s plans to set up an Olympic channel may be good, but how will they guarantee British sports fans get the kind of coverage during the Games itself to which we have become accustomed?