No friendly games as Britain’s best fight for their futures in Birmingham

The Commonwealth Games boxing tournament starts on Friday in Birmingham and leads directly to the Paris Olympics in 2024 for all of the English, Welsh and Scottish boxers.

On the Gold Coast four years ago, four of Great Britain's medal winners from Tokyo, won gold medals; Galal Yafai, Pat McCormack, Frazer Clarke and Lauren Price are now lost to the professional game. The GB boxers are in transition and that is why the Birmingham event is so important. Every single one of England's boxers from the Gold Coast have now turned professional.

It's not quite the same for the Indian and the Australian boxing squads. The Indians are now, unofficially and arguably, the best boxing team in the Commonwealth.

There are potential clashes between the English, Welsh and Scottish boxers at various weights that might be seen, by the men and women in charge of selecting the GB team going forward, as box-offs to get the first-choice pick for Paris and the Olympic qualifiers. Trust me, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham are far removed from any version of the friendly games. Please ditch that fantasy.

So many members of the GB squad have lived and fought alongside each other at their headquarters in Sheffield and on the road in various countries; they are friends, teammates, they share rooms and, in this tournament, they are rivals. It is a bizarre system – brutal, to tell the truth.

Perhaps the coldest and craziest clash should be a repeat of this year's European light-middleweight final when England's Harris Akbar beat Welshman Garan Croft in Armenia in May; Akbar became only the fourth English boxer since 1961 to win the European amateur boxing title. Two British boxers in the final against each other is quite absurd and highlights the