Both on the same team – but in very different sports

WHILE Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama may be on the same team when it comes to the Middle East, it was clear yesterday that they still need to find some agreement on sport.

A slightly bemused Mr Cameron was still trying to get his head around basketball, Mr Obama’s favourite sport, after being taken to a game in Ohio.

At the press conference, Mr Cameron joked that he had learnt some new words – “alley-oops, brackets and fast breaks” – and might even install a hoop in 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister said he would get his “own back” by taking Mr Obama to a cricket match and “explaining the rules to you and some of the terminology you will have to try and get straight”.

The president seemed to be up for the challenge until one of the press corps mentioned that Test matches last five days.

The sporting theme also continued into the gifts, which had echoes of the president’s state visit to the UK last year.

The Prime Minister presented Mr Obama with a Dunlop table tennis table, to commemorate their match at a London school during last year’s trip.

And the president reciprocated with a barbecue grill, alluding to their session flipping burgers for guests from the armed forces in No 10’s Rose Garden. Meticulous attention to detail has gone into preparing for this visit, compared with Gordon Brown’s trip in 2009, when the then prime minister presented Mr Obama with timber from a former slave ship and received a box of DVDs in return.