Spectacular opening ceremony proves critics wrong

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Contrary to what was being anticipated worldwide the opening ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. on October 3 turned out to be a magnificent earning appreciation from the international media.

The newspapers having been critical of the Games preparations earlier carried headlines like 'An ancient land opens its heart to the world', 'India opens doors to the world at opening ceremony' to describe the two-hour cultural extravaganza catching the imagination of the spectators as well as the millions watching it live on their television sets.

The respected British newspaper The Guardian described it was a moment of national pride for India.' India has arrived: spectacular ceremony opens Commonwealth Games,' read the newspaper's headline.

"This was the moment that 1.2 billion people – there are few in India who were still unaware of the event – had been waiting for," it added.

The Daily Mail was also lavish in its praise of the ceremony which showcased the centuries-old Indian culture to a packed crowd..

"The XIX Commonwealth Games crawled up off the canvas last night with a display of pageantry and technical wizardry that, finally, projected the image India craved on to two billion television sets around the world.” the newspaper said.

"India put on its best face on Sunday night and pulled off a brilliant opening ceremony that was extraordinary in its ambition and execution. It was everything the organisers had promised and more - an energetic celebration of all India has been and all it intends to be," wrote The Daily Telegraph.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported the ceremony as "A vibrant celebration of 5,000 years of Indian culture with just a hint of Bollywood showcased in a performance involving more than 6,000 artists.

"India has won the first unofficial gold medal of the Games - for best team uniform, The Indian athletes looked like royalty in their smart traditional maroon tops with gold braided scarves. Slick and sensational," it added

The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who witnessed the Opening Ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi, hailed the arrangements for the Games and dismissed the criticism that preceded it as creation of 'old and established' media which failed to judge 'new' India.

"It is difficult for some of the people specially media, old and established, to judge India...I think it is their difficulty to understand how India has evolved," he said, adding some people have to "certainly understand that new India is different,” he remarked.

"The opening ceremony was very spectacular and very beautiful. I am sure the Games are going to as perfect as any games," he thought.

Meanwhile the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, reckoned that a successful Commonwealth Games will provide India the foundation to think about a future Olympic bid.

“I think everything will be fine. Of course you can only judge the organisation at the moment of the closing ceremony but I think it’s going well. There is still a difference between Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. The size of the Olympic Games is bigger, there are more athletes and more sports,” he explained to the media after attending the glittering opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

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Indian government blamed for Delhi chaos

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has blamed the Indian government for the chaos as complaints have kept pouring in from a number of teams about the poor state of the athletes' village for the 19th Commonwealth Games 2010 to be staged in New Delhi from October 3 to 14.

The preparations have also been hit by failures in the construction of venues. A bridge at the Jawaharlal Nehru complex, the centrepiece of the Commonwealth Games, collapsed leaving over 20 people injured. Then part of the ceiling at the weightlifting arena fell in the following day.

The Chief Executive of the CGF, Mike Hooper, has said that his organization should not shoulder the blame for the problems which have plagued the build-up to the event in Delhi.

He claimed that the repeated requests from the CGF's co-ordination commission earlier in the year to speed up construction fell on deaf ears.

"When we viewed (the Games village) in March it was clear it was a massive work in progress and a lot of work had to be done," he told Five Live's Sportsweek programme.

"Everybody including the chefs de mission who came from all the teams were aware of the construction status. We kept getting shown the various model units that had been done and assured. Yes, we realize we are on a tight schedule but we will all get it done and delivered to the same standard,” he stated.

"Again when the co-ordination commission visited in May, two months after the chefs de mission had been, they were given the same reassurances. The co-ordination commission stated publicly in its press release that it put out that a key concern and key issue was the readiness in particular of the Games village.,” Hooper disclosed.

"All the warning signs were there. We were pushing very hard, we kept pushing. You can lead a horse to water you can't make it drink. These people just did not understand, or seem to accept the magnitude of the problem. There were consistently missed deadlines. The government agencies have let everybody down over here as regards meeting those deadlines. But that said we have to make it the best it can be and that's what we're all hoping to do now,” he added.

England’s chef de mission, Craig Hunter, made the following observation after landing there. "It's not perfect. But we are where we think the accommodation is acceptable for us. The village had the potential to be five star, there's no doubt about that. We're at about three star at the moment. It's by far from being perfect but it is at a level that we think is acceptable and appropriate for athletes to come to an event and to compete."

The village faced further criticism with Indian boxer Akhil Kumar's bed reportedly collapsing when he sat down on it.

"We reached the Olympic Bhavan late in the afternoon to collect our accreditation cards. But when I sat down on my bed to take rest, it collapsed," Kumar, who will compete in the 56kg category at the Games, was quoted as saying.

Two more Australian athletes have withdrawn from the Commonwealth Games because of security and health concerns. Cyclist Travis Meyer and table tennis player Stephanie Sang became the second and third Australians to pull out of the event, following world discus champion Dani Samuels.

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