Motorcycle racing is a minority sport. However, so is athletics. I would be surprised if there are less people paying to watch motorcycle sport than athletics in the UK in any given year (London 2012 Olympics aside).

Tennis, likewise, is not a big draw (Wimbledon aside) for the spectator. Cricket and Rugby do well drawing crowds at international level but at county (cricket) and club (rugby) level crowds are not large. Whilst it might be pushing it a bit to say these two were minority sports overall, at domestic level it could easily be argued they are.

I have no real grasp of how participation numbers stand and what that might suggest is a minority.

What it really comes down to these days is what rights does the BBC hold that it wants to keep promoting - athletics and tennis largely. The bias over recent years (decades?) towards these two sports in particular is blatant. Any sport that is part of the Olympics is given and increased profile presence as it form part of the dwindling BBC Sport portfolio.

When I was a kid the "Sports Review of the Year" was just that, with the added trinket at the end of the review of the "Sports Personality of the Year" award. Nowadays BBC have little to review, with the exception of short clips bought from Sky, Eurosport, C4 and ITV. Therefore they need to base the show around different content from it's original form and talking to individual sports people costs much less money than showing sports clips.

The two athletes nominated are, I believe, both world champions (as is Ben Stokes as part of the England team) - I'm sure this has taken much hard work and dedication to achieve. However, to win five successive world championships is surely a feat worth acclaiming.