Rugby League: Multi-tasking Lewis a Southerner Happy to Work at Northern Union

Richard Lewis may still look and sound like the Surrey-based tennis player and administrator of his previous existence, but five years into a deliberately low-profile tenure as the Rugby Football League's executive chairman he can occasionally lapse into the territory of a chippy northerner.

"I liken it to when it snows in the south of England," Lewis said of his adopted code's continued struggle for national recognition and exposure. "One day last winter [BBC] Five Live did a phone-in program about what people were doing on their day off, did they make it into work, tell us about your journey, all that sort of stuff - and it had not snowed anywhere north of the Midlands. So it's not just sport and rugby league, we're talking about the society of our country. There is a southern bias - and we're not going to change the world. We just have to concentrate on making our sport as strong as possible, both nationally and internationally."

That sort of pragmatic response, and the manner in which Lewis has gone about leading British rugby league from the dark days following the 2000 World Cup to its current position of reasonable rather than rude health, has impressed many outside the sport - without particularly exciting anyone within it.

He was recently appointed chairman of the Central Council for Physical Recreation's major spectator sports division and was also recruited last November by football's three governing bodies (the Football League, the Premier League and the FA) to chair a review of young player development, with his report due tomorrow.

"I suspect that was partly down to my tennis background, although I've never asked them why they appointed me," said the 52-year-old, who reached No68 in the men's world rankings before moving into coaching, administration and business consultancy. "But I think it's also a measure of the respect there is for what we've done in rugby league over the last few years."

Lewis identifies the greatest achievement of a period that has rarely been dull - with a betting scandal involving St Helens' Sean Long and Martin Gleeson, fraught negotiations over the current TV contract, the odd high-profile departure to rugby union and the Wembley redevelopment saga- as bringing the sport back together after a fractious few decades.

His appointment to a new position of executive chairman in 2002 symbolized a rapprochement between the governing body and the Super League clubs, who had previously edged towards a breakaway by creating their own marketing organisation, and after less than a year of his leadership the RFL had reunified with the British Amateur Rugby League Association, ending almost three decades of division.

It helped, he acknowledges, that he was such an outsider - certainly the first major rugby league official from Epsom. "To amalgamate the various stakeholders into one cohesive organisation it was an advantage not to be aligned to any one of those groups. And I still work hard at being neutral, at not being perceived to be overly involved with any one section of the sport."

He has been slightly irked by those who sought to run down Super League's Millennium Magic experiment in Cardiff last month and have continued carping despite its modest success. "It intrigues me how the sport does have this liking for negativity, even when something is good. There is room for improvement, yes, we'd like a full stadium, but for a first one it was a great start. I think we're set fair to create another major annual event."

Most significantly for those in the north who saw his other part-time chairmanships as the first steps towards a permanent return to southern seats of power, he has no plans to leave soon. "I didn't arrive with any preset ideas on how long I wanted to stay, and I don't in the near future see myself wanting to do anything else. I think there is a shelf-life and I don't want to outstay my welcome, but I'm really enjoying rugby league and I think there's a lot to be done."

A career in sport


1978 Part of British Davis Cup team beaten by US in final in a tennis career that peaked at world No68

1987 Starts 14-year career with Lawn Tennis Association, rising to become director of tennis

May 2002 Named executive chairman of Rugby Football League

May 2007 Appointed chairman of the CCPR's major spectator sports division