OLYMPIC rower Steve Redgrave used the announcement of his knighthood to talk about his aim to improve sporting practices in this country.

Five-times gold medallist Redgrave says he believes the country needs to look at its long term aims in sport and has called for a cross party group to take all sports forward.

Using his sport of rowing as an example he said: "Rowing in the late 70s and early 80s was not in a good state and we have now put ourselves into a reasonable situation but I still think it could be better than it is now.

"We have to use the knowledge that we have got.

"Each country, when they are doing something successful, has to draw from what they have.

"Australia has gone down the avenue of Institutes of Sports. We are talking about our own institutes but I don't think that is right for this country. We need individual sites and we need what is going to be best for our country."

Redgrave, who has been appointed Vice President of the British Olympic Association, admitted: "I think we could be much more successful than we have been at this Olympics. There should be more cross sport structure.

"There is not one step you can take to improve the sport. The first thing to do is to set targets, what are we trying to achieve in sport? This has to be more a cross party decision than the Government of the time think. We need more long term aims.

"There is something called the Vision of 2020, where do we want to be in 2020? We need a cross party group with common goals."

But he insisted changes can be made now to improve things.

Redgrave said: "Short term we need more of a structured coaching plan of how we coach our coaches. This is one area where we have fallen behind. Perhaps we could come up with a degree course. Within coaching we have a strong foundation of successful coaches. We have to teach other people the skills that they have learnt."