One of the stranger assignments I have had in the whacky world of sport was to report on a ten pin bowling event in the Sunway Lagoon Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur. This sport, only a little less popular in Malaysia than badminton, squash and hockey, was a highly successful if unlikely part of the Commonwealth Games staged by that country in 1998. Is this the kind of thing the International Olympic Committee's impending Agenda 2020 Session has in mind, I wonder?

No one was more bemused by the spectacle of a Commonwealth sport in a shopping arcade than the visiting Commonwealth ties-binder, Prince Edward, as he made his way past the Sesame Street children's entertainment area - where Big Bird was singing to loitering shoppers - past the Sports Boutik, British Home Stores, Kedai golf shop, the James Dean and B.U.M. fashion outlets, past KFC Chicken, past the Sony Power Station music shop, past a life-size hanging model of a space ship, complete with floating astronaut. Past the Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant. Until there he was, tugging at the sleeves of his blazer, watching tenpin bowling.

Asked afterwards if he had enjoyed the experience, he replied: "Very much. Thank you." He sounded like a boy trying to be grateful to his headmaster for caning him.

England's Richard Wood takes part in the ten pin bowling at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur ©Getty Images

For the Malaysians, however, and their visiting Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the experience was one of almost unalloyed joy as the host nation's doubles' pairing of Kenny Ang and Ben Heng earned the first home gold of the Games, and the women's pair took silver, encouraged by the incessant chanting of "Malaya Boleh!" – "Malaya you can!"

This, presumably, is the effect the IOC and its reforming President Thomas Bach have in mind as plans are laid to make the Olympic programme more accessible and flexible for future generations of prospective Olympians in different events. As a model, clearly, it works well. The trick, as in everything, is to maintain the correct balance between tradition and innovation.

Such a balance is currently preoccupying Lord Sebastian Coe, who yesterday publicised his prospective manifesto as part of his campaign to succeed Lamine Diack as President of the International Association of Athletics Federations next August.

Having underlined the need for the sport he loves to embrace change or face "an increasingly uncertain future", Britain's double Olympic 1500 metres champion and former chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee offers a mix of clear and more general suggestions.

Among the former is the aim of increasing the proportion of the IAAF's 213 member federations capable of producing athletes who reach the qualification standards for the Finals at the biennial World Championships from 60 to 100.

"This will be a key objective for me and I want to ensure that, together, we make this happen and this will mean delivering greater funding for those Member Federations who aim to reach this status," Coe's manifesto, entitled Growing Athletics In A New Age, sets out.

Sebastian Coe, who will contest the vote for Presidency of the International Association of Athletics Federations next August, launched his manifesto in London yesteday 
©Getty Images

Calling all smaller and less powerful national athletics federations! Is qualification for World Championships Finals something you would a) aspire to or b) shun? If the answer is a), what would be your response to more money to accomplish that aspiration – would it be a) "Yes please" or b) "Keep your money, Seb"?

Doesn't look like a big vote loser, does it?

In terms of the events themselves, and their presentation, Coe is less specific, but at the same time more intriguing. He foresees a thorough overhaul of a World Athletics calendar which he believes is widely viewed as being "disjointed", lacking purpose and a sense of narrative. He wants there to be a renewed focus on getting the best athletes to compete in what resembles a tennis grand slam system.

He also posits the idea of a "Running and Walking Festival", based over a weekend in one host city, which brings together race walking, road races and cross country events. He suggests that the IAAF World Indoor Championships could be more energetically employed to showcase "new thinking" in events and disciplines. And he speaks up for the creation of an IAAF Street Athletics circuit and a possible Inter-City event.

Do we hear the thunder of power chords? Do our eyes begin to screw up in the expectation of strobe lighting and dry ice?

Razzamataz is an increasing element of so many sports - as makers of fireworks and confetti will happily attest. One click away from what you are reading, within our ad alongside on behalf of World Bowling (ten pin and nine pin), you can access a sample video featuring the introductions for this year's World Bowling Tour finals broadcast by ESPN. "They come from all over the planet for the sport's most prestigious international event..." Cue the entry of six distinctly normal mortals to a thunderous son et lumiere...

Jessica Ennis signals victory in the Great City Games at Manchester in 2010. Seb Coe believes an international street athletics circuit should be part of the future for the sport ©Getty Images

It's easy enough to dress up ten pin bowling. It's all concentrated, there's only one discipline involved. Marketing-wise, it's hard not to get a strike every time.

But as Lord Seb justly points out, there are 47 different disciplines in track and field. And that's before you consider everything else that goes on outside the stadium. It is a task of Olympian complexity to get this particular balance right. But, as we await the thoughts of Coe's main likely rival for the Presidency, Sergey Bubka, at least all of us who follow and appreciate the sport that lies at the heart of the Olympics can feel that someone has apprehended the main requirements for its continuing health.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £8.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.