the chairman of middlesex county cricket club has apologised for comments he made today at a parliamentary hearing on tackling racism in the sport. mike o'farrell suggested that players from an african—carribean background were more attracted to rugby and football, and that south asian people sometimes preferred to focus on education rather than cricket. our sports correspondent joe wilson reports. english cricket's south asian action plan, one initiative the ecb was keen to highlight today in front of a select committee. but when it came to explaining the barriers to diversity in the professional game, the chair of middlesex county cricket club said... the football and rugby world becomes much more attractive to the afro—caribbean community. and in terms of the south asian community there is a moment where we are finding that they do not want necessarily to commit the same time that is necessary to go to the next step because they'd prefer, i am not saying they all do it, they sometimes prefer to go into other educational fields. there was no response in the room. there was immediately on social media. former international ebony rainford—brent chairs the ace foundation to address the declining black cricket participation. she reacted... michael o'farrell apologised for what he described as his lack of clarity. azeem rafiq accepted that apology but with deep concerns. i just feel like clearly the counties and the game are still very much in denial and that's a big worry. for the cricketer who experienced and exposed racism at yorkshire, today's events reveal the long road still to travel. joe wilson, bbc news. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show with carmen roberts. this week on the travel show, tiny spaces in tokyo. vast wide open ones in finnish lapland. freedom, the silence around you, and generally just live a happier life. and the trips to look forward to in 2022. international restrictions will start to ease, restoring the benefits that travel brings to the world. it's a city of dazzling neon, where robots can fix your drink, and you order your food from a machine. and even way back in 1972, architects were coming up with visions of the future that still leave us spellbound. this is the nakagin capsule tower. it's astonishing to sit here and look at this building, and even though it was built about 50 years ago, it still looks really futuristic. but the netting on the outside is a sign that time is beginning to catch up with the nakagin. it's made from more than 140 pods, each of which can be detached and replaced. the tower was the first finished example of metabolism — an architectural movement inspired by the natural world — but this year, it's scheduled for demolition. wow. this is it? it's t' in hai! y! where's the kitchen? doko — kitchen wa doko desu ka? mr maeda owns several capsules. look at this tiny bathroom. i'm not going to even attempt to go inside. wow. that is small. it still works? yes. there's hot water? no hot water. 0h, tough. wow, and there's a bit of rust on the taps there. yeah. why is the building being demolished? how does it make you feel when you know that this building will be demolished? the current plan is for some of the pods to be shipped off to museums around the world, but i'm off to see another resident here, who's still very much using hers. 0k, shoes off? hai. i love your place. look, it's brilliant, it's mad — i've never seen anything like it! why do you rent a capsule here? koe is a dj. she live—streams from her pod on one of the upper floors of the tower. upbeat music plays when nakagin is torn down later this year, there'll be an empty space in tokyo's skyline. but it's not quite the end for metabolism. deep in the woods in nagano prefecture, about a three—hour drive from tokyo, is one building that's fared better than the nakagin capsule tower. this is capsule house k. it's owned by mikio kurokawa, whose father was the architect of this and the nakagin itself. he intends to list it on airbnb. hajimemashite. arigatou gozaimasu. it's nice and warm in here. i love these �*70s features — they're great. it's got a real retro feel about it. arigatou gozaimasu. gk. show me around. hai. it's in much better condition. oh, so this must be the kitchen capsule? old �*70s interior. the building was designed for use as kisho kurokawa's own private villa. there is one central shaft with four capsules attached, each with a different function. and what you about the nakagin capsule tower in tokyo being set for demolition? i love the idea of a metabolically designed building — that parts or pods can be removed and recycled — but, sadly, that's more difficult than it sounds, and while the nakagin capsule tower is destined for demolition, at least the original design concept is living on here in nagano. hello, and happy new year to you. well, for me, and probably for you, it's been another challenging year for travel, and 2022 begins with a tangle of international rules that can make anyjourney a gruelling battle. but my hope is that as vaccination makes progress around the world, international restrictions will start to ease and borders will open, restoring the benefits that travel brings to the world. so, what am i most excited about this year? the resurgence of rail in europe. during the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have reassessed our relationship with travel, wanting to limit the impact on the environment and improve the quality of the journey. and in europe, that means international rail, with new opportunities, such as italian railway�*s frecciarossa service, between paris and milan, enjoying complimentary food and prosecco as you speed through the alps. also, there's expanded overnight services, including new sleeper trains between paris and vienna and from amsterdam to zurich. the us finally opened to visitors from europe, brazil, and some other countries only in november. iflew into orlando, florida, on opening day — inconveniently a few weeks late for the big anniversary of walt disney world — 50 years since it opened on 0ctober1, 1971. but never wants to miss a party, the four disney parks will be having celebrations for 18 months, all the way through this year and into 2023. after two summers of disappointment, will this be the year when festival—lovers can return to worthy farm in the english county of somerset? glastonbury, arguably the most famous music festival in the world, was due to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020, until covid—19 forced its cancellation. now, emily evers, co—organiser of glastonbury, says it will go ahead injune, and two headliners are already confirmed — diana ross and billie eilish. the uk is hosting the women's euros for the first time with the final being played at wembley stadium on the last day ofjuly. later in the year, it's the turn of qatar to host the men's world cup. tickets for the tournament are not yet on sale but you can check out accommodation options, whether that's in a special desert camp, on board a cruise ship moored in qatar or staying with a local family. to answer a question we've been asked many times here at the travel show, fans will be able to drink alcohol in qatar in specially allocated zones. find out more in a couple of weeks when we will host an entire travel show special from qatar. wherever you are heading in 2022, i hope your travel dreams come true. join me again soon for another global guide. still to come on the travel show: one of the best social distances around. the woman who gave it all up for a new life in the arctic wilderness. i wanted to have more spare time, not work so much. and enjoy more. so don't go away. this week we are exploring the japanese capital, tokyo. this is yoyogi park, right in the heart of the city and known for its cherry blossom in the springtime. i wanted to show you one pretty cool addition to the landscape, and here it is. this is yoyogi's new transparent loo, part of the tokyo toilet project, an attempt by some of the country's best known architects to give us somewhere more beautiful to go about our business. these ones, for example, took mushrooms as their inspiration as they sit in front of woodland. while this has hygiene at its heart, with everything operating on voice command. from my money, though, these at yoyogi are the most outrageous. and this is how it works. now you see me, now you don't. well, sort of. it takes a while to become opaque, so i hope you're not in a rush. i've never seen anything like this. i felt a bit strange at first. were you worried people might see you? yes, i was a bit worried at first, but then it gets darker towards when the time has passed, so i felt safe. let's face it, japanese toilets have always been ahead of the game. with their hygiene sprays and their seat warmers. but this might take a bit of getting used to. anyway, now, if you don't mind, i have business to get down to. sometimes, don't we all want to just get away from it all — really far away? well, that is exactly what ava did, leaving her home in helsinki for a new life in the remote, freezing arctic. india latham met with her to see how her new life in a winter wonderland is panning out. this is my london life. bike rides through the park. you can see why this is one of my favourite parts of the cycle. the leaves, the light, the cute dogs. having coffee with friends, and of course, not forgetting the tube at rush—hour. but i'm leaving the big smoke for a while to visit kuusamo, which is just 60km south of the arctic circle, on the border of finnish lapland. the temperature and the decibels have dropped dramatically compared to london. i'm heading deeper and deeper into the wilderness. this is wild. ..to meet photographer ava. three years ago, she turned her back on city life in helsinki to move to the wilds of northern finland and build her dream house by the side of a lake. believe it or not, it's actually a good place for snorkelling. definitely more of a summer activity, i think. so i'm meeting ava on the lake just over there. don't get me wrong, i love being in the countryside. but it's minus 15 degrees here, where in london it's plus ten. i've got two pairs of gloves on, three pairs of socks and i've lost count of how many jumpers, and i still feel cold. i don't feel like selling up and moving here anytime soon, but that could all change. ava. hi! so good to meet you. same to you. what an incredible spot. i can't believe you actually live here. welcome to our home. thank you. i mean, obviously it's beautiful. it's also so cold. why would you move to a place like this? freedom is one of the biggest ones. just the silence around you, and generallyjust live a happier life. what was it about the city that you didn't like? just the pace of life. everybody�*s so busy and you kind of let yourself go into the mode of that you have to just work and be super oriented with all that stuff. i wanted to have more spare time, not work so much, and enjoy more. i feel like when i'm in the city there's always so much to do, so many places to be, but i feel like here you have a lot of time. what do you fill that time with? i take my camera a lot of times. i'd take it with me to the woods, and during winter we go with skis, obviously, because there's so much snow. show me the way. yes, let's go and get the skis. as well as working as a photographer, ava is also a wilderness guide and takes tourists like me into her own winter wonderland. at first downhill. i'm a skier now! when you look at ava's photography, her love for nature is evident. she uses her online presence and her tools to show the best the natural world has to offer, and what's at stake of being lost to climate change. i love taking photos of everything that is valuable. for example, old forests. i love taking photos there. i can show it to people, that this is what we should protect. should we head back and get warm? yeah, i think so. ok, let's go. as night falls, shortly after lunchtime, it becomes apparent to me that life here during winter is extreme — very extreme. as we head indoors to a restaurant to get warm, there is one question on my mind. does ava ever feel tempted to head back into the city for an easier life? nope, i don't think so. and why? we're building a house, a log house in the forest. why did you choose to do it there? we found this beautiful place that is on a lakeshore, and we actually wanted a house that is facing north, that we could sit on our couch, have a fire going and watch the northern lights when they appear. so what advice would you give to somebody who wants to give up everything and move to the wilderness to live in their dream house? when we left the city, we hadn't been consuming less. that's pretty natural here. but to be honest, it's not that expensive to have your dream life, at least here. a trip to finland wouldn't be complete without going to a sauna, and it's here where it becomes apparent why ava chooses to live somewhere quite so rural. she's figured out the conundrum that us citydwellers have been mulling overfor years — how to stop time. when we're sitting in a 100—years—old sauna, it's going to be a memory that we're going to remember, like, all of our lives. i remember every time that i have been into this sauna, and i remember every adventure that i've had in these fields around us. i even remember the walks that we have with our dog, and sometimes of course i might have a little memory of that with my camera. i remember all the things that i saw, all the things that i felt and heard. when i was in the city, there was, like, 365 days in a year, and you might have months and months just running by and you don't remember any details of a day because everything is just so similar. when you're here, it kind of — every year feels kind of longer because you're going to have so many more memories. before i head back to london, there is one more memory i want to make here in finland. i'm definitely the town mouse to ava's country mouse, but like in the old story, what i've learned from my trip is to slow down and to find peace in a busy world. i've been wanting to do a snow angel all day. and i'm told that this is the traditional finnish way. here goes! oh, my god! ok, that's a memory i definitely won't forget! oh, my god, it actually feels really nice. coming up next week: we are with one woman emerging from a hard lockdown as she battles her own anxiety on the road. so this is it. i've made it to the mediterranean sea. i've been waiting for this feeling for so long, it feels like forever. unbelievable. and find out the tips, tricks and long—term solutions to make your travels a lot calmer. don't forget, you can catch up with more of our recent trips on the bbc iplayer. and we're on social media too. just search bbc travel show on facebook and instagram. but for now, from all of us here in tokyo, it's goodbye. hello there. wednesday brings the promise of a bit more brightness. some sunshine, even, across parts of england and wales after what has been a very stagnant and cloudy and cold few days. you can see that haze of grey on the earlier satellite picture. bright white cloud up to the north—west, though. that's indicative of frontal systems approaching, eventually bringing some rain into scotland and northern ireland, with a strengthening wind. so, through wednesday, england and wales having a better chance of some sunny spells, although towards the south—east corner it may stay cloudy for a good part of the day. strengthening winds across northern areas. rain just getting into northern ireland, certainly setting in across western and north—western scotland through the afternoon. gusts of wind in excess of 50 mph in exposed north—western parts. but milder than it has been, certainly across england and wales — eight, nine, ten degrees. northern ireland and scotland up to ten or 11. through wednesday night, it will turn very, very windy in the far north. gales, even severe gales, close to the northern isles. 0ur band of cloud and increasingly light and patchy rain will be sinking its way southwards through the night. with some fairly windy weather, and relatively cloudy weather as well, temperatures should stay above freezing in most places. so, into thursday, this frontal system pushing its way southwards, taking cloud and patchy rain across england and wales. low pressure still close to the north—east of scotland, so a very blustery start to the day here. that wind will only slowly ease as the day wears on. 0ur band of cloud and patchy rain clinging on for a time across southern counties of england. it should clear out into the english channel by the afternoon to allow brighter skies to develop. some showers feeding in on the north—westerly breeze. temperatures for most of us between seven and 12 degrees. now, thursday night could get a little bit chilly, this ridge of high pressure building in. that could allow for some frost and some fog, but there's another frontal system approaching from the west. that'll be freshening up the winds as we go through the day, particularly across northern ireland and scotland. rain getting into north—west scotland. in fact, some quite heavy rain through the north—west highlands. further south and east, increasing amounts of cloud. best of the sunshine in eastern counties. eight or nine degrees along the east coast of england. more like ten or 11 for western parts of the uk. the weekend looks unsettled and changeable. some rain at times, but not all the time. could be quite windy and generally, particularly on saturday, very mild. welcome to bbc news. i'm david eades. our top stories: police launch an investigation into whether parties at downing street violated coronavirus rules. a spokesman says borisjohnson didn't think he had broken the law. more tough talk to prevent the ukraine crisis reaching a tipping point — president 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