THE GREEK'S FAT FINGERS Madrid has vowed to put in a successful bid for the 2016 Games after news reports indicated that a Greek official pressed the wrong button during the voting for the 2012 Olympics, a mistake that worked out in London's favour. Alex Gilady, a senior IOC member from Israel, told the BBC that Lambis Nikolaou, the organiser of the Athens Games, mistakenly voted for Paris instead of Madrid when the two cities were left competing with London for the right to host the 2012 Games. Paris got 33 votes to Madrid's 31, so had he voted for Madrid as intended it would have led to a tie-breaker to decide who faced off against London in the final round. According to observers, Madrid would have been considered a bigger threat to London if they had made it through, as votes for Paris would have moved to their bid. 'This is what you call good fortune and good luck,' Gilady said. KOBE'S COMING Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers' star, formally committed this week to playing for Team USA in the Beijing Olympics. After a meeting with Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo, he said: 'I told him I'm down with it. This is our sport, this is basketball.' BASEBALL Taiwan has won the right to host the Asian qualifying tournament for the baseball competition of the Beijing Games. The preliminary event will be held in 2007. AUDIT TIME China's state auditors have announced they are going to put the Olympic-related expenditure under a spotlight next year. The budgets for the construction of the venues and the Beijing organising committee will be independently scrutinised, they said. This comes after the General Administration of Sport had collected 24 million yuan in sponsorship money that was never paid out, and 131 million yuan had been 'misused'.