New Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010.

[SciD]

I think the CWG comittee has taken the word "VILLAGE" too seriously.

And Common Wealth too.

 

[King Cricket]

I agree with the Australian minister who says that India should never have been given the hosting rights of this event in the first place. Apart from cricket, we don't have any infrastructure at all as far as the other sports are concerned, and the Indian Olympic Association, helmed by Suresh Kalmadi, is riddled with charges of absolute corruption, mismanagement and cronyism. If we really wanted to showcase our economic clout and blah blah blah (which was one of the main intentions behind spending so much on this), we could have chosen the Cricket World WC or some similar event which had every chance of being a success. I guess it's one of the problems of being over-ambitious.

People often complain about Indian public being indifferent to sports other than cricket. If this is the condition of our sporting infrastructure, no wonder that happens. Hopefully, our government will learn a lesson from this (they will have to, as the common public is literally boiling with fury) and rids our major sporting bodies of their corrupted, incompetent, inefficient, and indolent administrators. Unless and until that happens, we will continue to bite the dust at the Olympics and continue be ████ in sports other than cricket. Sometimes, I feel glad that the BCCI could free itself from these type of corrupted officials. Otherwise, cricket too would have headed in the same direction. No question of hosting the Olympic Games ATM. First, we need to develop a proper infrastructure with the multi-trillion dollar economy we have before we can dream of hosting even the Asian Games. Feeling so ashamed as an Indian!

 

[SciD]

^ I disagree. We have hosted Asian Games and first ever Afro Asian games and CWG was not a tall order which countries like Australia can only hold.

Delhi Govt. and Corrupt Kalmadi gang is to be blamed for this. No one could have predicted that the infrastructure will not be ready in 6 years. In 6 years we could have sent man on Mars even.

 

[King Cricket]

There was a shooting in the city earlier this week and there is about to be a court ruling on some Hindu Muslim affair. Its just too much going on, I would not feel safe walking around as a tourist.

Security is an issue, in the sense that a bridge/highway/stadium can collapse anytime and injure the athletes. Don't think there's too much of a chance of terrorist attacks/religious violence though because if you visit Delhi ATM you'd find security personnels everywhere. That's one area where the CWG Organizing Committee has delivered. :laugh (although their main motive behind beefing up security in front of the stadiums is probably to keep photographers and mediamen away from them) It is more about complete and mass corruption in all major sporting bodies bar cricket, and an utterly inefficient local administration than anything else. Someone should file a Public Interest Litigation against the organizers. The charges are numerous- from using child labour to money laundering and everything.

King Cricket added 8 Minutes and 43 Seconds later...

I disagree. We have hosted Asian Games and first ever Afro Asian games and CWG was not a tall order which countries like Australia can only hold.

What about the billions and billions of dollars that have gone down the drain though? Dogs are still bathing in pools meant for athletes (according to a local paper) - that's what our Kalmadi administration has done in six years. There really wasn't any need for this. We could have taken our time, sorted out issues like corruption within the IOA and then bid for the CWG/Olympics.

 

[pcfan123]

I dunno about that, a few independent security reviews have come to the conclusion that a terrorist event is very likely and all athletes/foreigners should avoid using public transport or being in high traffic tourist areas.

Mark added 1 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...

A reliable source

Commonwealth Games 2010: Athletes warned of rising terrorism threat | Sport | The Observer

and a not so reliable one

Al Qaeda plot to kidnap British athletes, fans during Delhi Games unearthed

Mark added 1 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...

It's just not worth the risk, no sport is worth risking ones life. A few more Australian athletes have just pulled out and you can't blame them.

http://www.smh.com.au/commonwealth-...nwealth-games-20100926-15s4u.html?from=smh_sb

 

[Covvy]

Geez this is sad, we right now should be dicussing about the athletes and whether or not Australia will beat England, not whether a bloody terrorist attack will occur or not.

In today's paper it said that Australians should not go out in Australian colours as they'll be a terrorist target. Sad also how the athletes aren't allowed to go and explore rather they have to stay in the village.

 

[King Cricket]

I dunno about that, a few independent security reviews have come to the conclusion that a terrorist event is very likely and all athletes/foreigners should avoid using public transport or being in high traffic tourist areas.

Maybe, I haven't heard much about the security scares. The media reports of today say that security personnels are everywhere in the Games venues and they are not letting anyone go anywhere near them. Anyway, I do feel that these concerns have some merit. (the Al Qaeda thing sounds bogus though- I have read nothing pertaining to it on reliable sources) Hope nothing untoward happens, as that will be absolutely disastrous with India staring at a possible isolation from the rest of the sporting world. Even I would have pulled out from the Games had I been a participant. Who would stay in rooms having mosquitoes, human excreta, dogs etc etc and practice in waterlogged, muddy stadiums anyway?

CWG= Complete failure

 

[SciD]

What about the billions and billions of dollars that have gone down the drain though? Dogs are still bathing in pools meant for athletes (according to a local paper) - that's what our Kalmadi administration has done in six years. There really wasn't any need for this. We could have taken our time, sorted out issues like corruption within the IOA and then bid for the CWG/Olympics.

That is different issue all together. What you are saying is that you think Aussie PM is right in saying India should not have awarded CWG rights which is not true if you consider the past of India when the games were awarded and no one could have predicted this mess to happen.

SciD added 5 Minutes and 34 Seconds later...

I dunno about that, a few independent security reviews have come to the conclusion that a terrorist event is very likely and all athletes/foreigners should avoid using public transport or being in high traffic tourist areas.

Mark added 1 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...

A reliable source

Commonwealth Games 2010: Athletes warned of rising terrorism threat | Sport | The Observer

and a not so reliable one

Al Qaeda plot to kidnap British athletes, fans during Delhi Games unearthed

Mark added 1 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...

It's just not worth the risk, no sport is worth risking ones life. A few more Australian athletes have just pulled out and you can't blame them.

Two more Australian athletes withdraw from Commonwealth Games

We do not have Al Qaeda in India. All Islamic extremist in India are aligned with Kashmir with Talibani militants coming in past to help them. But now Talibani militants are busy fighting Americans in Pakistan.

Terror risk will always be there with a event of this magnitude. It will be same for england or USA.

These are for Beijing Olympics:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Beijing warned of 'terror threat'
Terrorism 'big threat' to Olympics - The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

 

[MattW]

What you are saying is that you think Aussie PM is right in saying India should not have awarded CWG rights which is not true if you consider the past of India when the games were awarded and no one could have predicted this mess to happen.

Fairly important point of clarification is that it was our Olympic Committee's head, someone not involved either in the Commonwealth Games or the Government.

There's pretty much firm support for a rotation policy for the games with the decision makers here, and India was always going to be a natural place to hold them. The success of the 1998 games in Kuala Lumpur was probably the main driver behind the choice of India.

Something Malaysia did do with the 98 games was to have it as a key plank of their plan to become an industrialised nation by 2020 (Wawasan 2020). Now there were certainly elements of this in the planning for the 2010 games, but the failings are around not recognising the scale of the job and the changes you need to make outside of just building stadiums.

As I said earlier in the thread, at the very least these games need to be the start of India developing sport more broadly. I do think India can pull it off, because there's a huge desire to get things right, but it won't be the breakthrough appearance on the world stage India wanted.

 

[SciD]

If they wanted to hold games they should have chosen Hyderabad where already infrastructure was in place or may be give to Chandigarh to put us on Internatinal scene. Delhi is so complicated city that trying to make changes to the city to suit CWG plans is one of main reasons behind the delay.

We have so many empty apartments from same builders (those who built CWG village) vacant here.

Lets hope all goes well and these can give Indian sportsman facilities to hone their skills in International level stadiums in future. Who will upkeep these stadium though?

 

[riz7khan12]

Who will upkeep these stadium though?

the track & field one will probably get turned into a cricket ground :sarcasm

 

[AkshayS]

Snake in athlete's room at Games village, claims SA envoy - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: There seems to be no end to the problems confronting the organisers of the Commonwealth Games with the South African envoy claiming that a snake was found in an athlete's room in the village.

:laugh

nothing new, snakes are common in a village.

 

[SciD]

the track & field one will probably get turned into a cricket ground :sarcasm

It's JN stadium and it has been athletics only with occasional football.

 

[sohum]

Well this is a mess. Even if the organizers pull everything through in the end, they need to be fired simply for having India's name dragged through the dirt for the better part of 2 weeks.

They've had all the financial resources required. $10bn of cheap labor is no small amount of money. The last report I could find (from a couple of years ago) had the budget for London 2012 at about $18bn. The CWG are not half as big as the Olympics and the money should take you a lot farther in India.

What I do like about this whole situation is basically the international flagellation of our politicians for being corrupt and generally politically incorrect. The number of ridiculous quotes that have been heard over the last few days is hilarious--my favorite being the "foreigners have different expectations of hygiene". It would probably have cost less just to have the athletes stay at 5-star hotels and that way we could outsource a lot of the related costs--food, housekeeping, entertainment, some security--to a private organization that actually does it for a business.

 

[Aoun13]

Yet again corruption is ruining both Indian and Pakistan. When our countries will throw away these bloody corrupt people?
It is real sad with what all we are listening hope some higher officials try to solve all this matter.