We learned early on that covering local sport can make a major difference to how well your newspaper is received.

So we set about ensuring local leagues and personalities were promoted through our sports pages.

Rather than focusing on Pakistani and Indian cricket that was the staple diet of many a national Asian publications we sought to feature local sports men and women.

The sports pages became a major reason for the success of the newspaper.

If someone wanted a game covering we were there. Won a cup?...We were there. Scored a century in your local league?...we were there. Sport became a bit of an obsession after a while.

In fact sometimes we would be having to report on several cup finals and tournaments in one day. Most of the time we met the challenge. Sometimes it wasn't possible to be in five different places at once.

The Asian Image sport's pages continue to set the standard for Asian sports coverage in the region.

We will try to get to as many games as possible and we have been first to feature a number of rising stars well before they are known to the wider media.

Our sports coverage has also grabbed the attention of a number of national government and media organisations and we are regularly asked to comment and consult on a whole host of sporting issues.

Tournament days never had it so good...

In 2000 we helped organise the Summer Cancer Relief tournament and then supported the Abdul Charity cup. Both tournaments were organised by volunteers whose work cannot be under-estimated.

Little did we know that such tournaments would prove so popular as years went by.

Every year we found more and more clubs entering from more and more backgrounds. Up and until then (and we speak from experience) charity football tournaments were poorly organised with finals not taking place until 9pm.

In June 2001 riots broke out across the North of England. Days later we hosted the Cancer Relief Football Tournament. The day passed off without incident despite their being a a mix of Asian and non-Asian players and teams in five different age ranges.

But none of this would have been possible without the assistance of volunteers and helpers who went out of their way to organise these tournaments.