Steve Jones - television broadcaster, actor and model best known as first season host of America’s The X Factor - is to be the new presenter of Channel 4’s Formula One coverage which starts this month.

Versatile Welshman Jones is said to be a keen follower of motor racing.

Although having little or no background as a sports anchor, he has wide experience of working on live TV programmes, including Sunday morning show T4 with C4.

Steve Jones (left) will be the new presenter of Channel Four’s F1 coverage which starts this month

Jones will share the Grand Prix presenting role with all-powerful David Coulthard, founder of C4’s F1 production company Whisper Films.

However, Jones does have one sporting credit, having hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup Welcome to Wales concert at the Millennium Stadium.

David Coulthard (left) will join Jones as presenter of C4's coverage of the new F1 season

Boycs in new war of the white rose

A book published this week charting Yorkshire cricket’s civil war, centered on batting great Geoffrey Boycott over 30 years ago, remarkably coincides with renewed hostilities in the county over his attempt to join the board.

Yorkshire chairman Steve Denison is urging members not to vote in 75-year-old Boycott, a former president, as a director at the club’s AGM on March 26. Denison says the success of two championship-winning seasons in a row has been based on a stable management team.

And Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon’s fierce opposition to Boycott since they played in the same team in the Eighties is revealed in The War of the White Roses (Pitch, £17.99), written by Yorkshire expert Stuart Rayner.

Geoff Boycott, now a commentator, is a former Yorkshire captain and more recently club president

Moxon says of Boycott: ‘It was very much about him, in my opinion. He was solely concerned with making sure he got his runs so he couldn’t get criticism and to hell with anything else.’

According to Moxon, that bred a negative, selfish mindset in the Yorkshire dressing room: ‘It was “If he’s going to do it, I’m going to do it”. It was childish selfishness rather than working for the benefit of the team.’

Comparing Yorkshire now, Moxon says: ‘There’s that togetherness as a club on and off the field, a common goal, a common way of going about things, a true identity. Things are kind of joined-up now, where it was fractured then.’

Boycott also contributed to the book, saying: ‘The members gave me a lot of support which I’ll always be grateful for. They decided in their thousands to overturn the committee and get me a contract in 1983. It’s like a vote of no confidence in the government — if you don’t like what they’re doing, you get them out.’

Yorkshire celebrate after being presented with the County Championship trophy in September 2015

Secret meetings between the big five Premier League clubs and threats of potential break-away European Leagues tend to occur every three years, as UEFA gear up for the next Champions League TV tender. The top teams always want more, especially with UEFA sitting on £400million cash reserves.

Bernard Lapasset is not seeking another term as president of World Rugby, which means fortunate RFU chairman Bill Beaumont is almost certain to be elected as the new global leader of the sport in May. And that means ‘no comment’ Bill will have to start putting his head above the parapet.

RFU chairman Bill Beaumont (left) is almost certain to be elected as the new global leader of rugby

SHEIK RATTLED AND TOLD

Kuwait’s Sheik Ahmad Al Sabah has explained his mysterious absence for much of the FIFA Congress — leading to speculation he was still lobbying for votes for defeated Sheik Salman. Ahmad said he ‘left his seat at times to deal with matters related to the reforms presented to the Congress’. He also had to deal with the arrival of VIP guests, including IOC president Thomas Bach. Ahmad also denies using Olympic contacts to influence the electorate and sending abusive messages via a Twitter forum in his name to Princess Haya, sister of Prince Ali of Jordan.

Sheik Ahmad Al-Sabah allegedly broke IOC code of ethics to lobby voters at the FIFA president election