Guli Danda
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NEW DELHI: The headlines across the world have changed and how. Ten days ago they read: "Games are running on empty" and "What's wrong with the Games today?" But now after the successful staging of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, topped off by a glitzglam closing ceremony on Thursday, an overwhelming majority of the foreign media is singing praises - some fulsome, a few grudging - about the way the Games were overall conducted.
The latest headlines are: Delhi's Commonwealth showing a winner, after all (Vancouver Sun) and CWG 2010: India has every right to be proud after torrid build-up (Daily Telegraph), Games 2010 finish with India triumphant (Guardian) and Delhi bellyachers the losers as Games overcome hurdles in strong finish (Sydney Morning Herald).
Sydney Morning Herald even carried an online poll; the question being, Would you rate the Delhi Games a success? 81% said yes. The Toronto Star says that for the host nation "the greatest legacy of the Games" is "not the medal total, but the potential launching of a sports culture in India."
Randy Starkman of Toronto Star, writes, "Just as Canada is dominated by hockey and everything else is a distant second, the same applies to India and cricket. But at these Games so many new heroes were born for India, such as the women's 4x400-metre relay team.
"Sport in general hasn't been promoted in this nation, but women's sport has been a total afterthought. These Games have the potential to create a shift in that. Already, there is talk of India going after an Olympics. That would have been laughed off before the Games started, and rightly so. But they've likely put themselves back in the running by pulling this off in good fashion.
"Obviously, they're going to have to ramp up their organizational resources and improve their preparation and planning to have any shot at it. But Rio's got the 2016 Olympics and it could be argued these Games were more impressive than the 2007 Pan Ams staged in Brazil."
John Mackinnon also writes in the Vancouver Sun, "Having covered the Pan American Games in Rio, which that equally problematic city leveraged into a successful Olympic bid, it seems fair to say that Delhi's organizational effort was in many ways superior to Rio's."
At least for a section of the foreign press, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit endures as the hero of the Games. "It was Dikshit, at the collective urging of countries such as Canada, Scotland, England, Wales and New Zealand, who applied the necessary discipline and organizational muscle to tidy up the Village and avert more embarrassment than Delhi had already suffered," says the same newspaper.
Interestingly, the Canadian athletes are nearly unanimous in lauding Delhi's Games. "Our buses were always on time, the competitions always started on time," said Canadian flag-bearer Tara Whitten, winner of one gold and three bronze in cycling. "On the track, that's actually unheard of, to be as on time as we were."
Jessica Halloran writes in the Australian newspaper Courier Mail, "In the end we all were in love with India - they were gracious hosts - but we never fell for the Games' organising committee. Ask any Delhiite and they would speak about the shame this bungling, bumbling and self-serving committee had brought upon them. But the people of India, their goodwill and their kindness, triumphed over the OC's chaos and corruption in the end. Somehow it all came together."
She also points out that "during the Games a tuk-tuk or Embassy cab was far more reliable than the transport the OC provided."
London-based newspaper Daily Telegraph was one of the most vicious critics of the Games. Jacquelin Magnay writes in the same newspaper, "Such was the low expectations of a struggling and ineffectual organising committee, fuelled by the betel-nut stains on lavatory bowls, piles of rubble and unfinished construction at the athletes' village two weeks before the opening ceremony, the Games were going to be a success if they started, and a huge success if they finished."
Nonetheless, the newspaper also admits, "The Indians have a right to feel warm about their justified claims that the Games were happy and reasonably well run, amid the country's bigger social and economic struggles."
It also quotes Kelly Holmes, president of Commonwealth Games England, as saying that athletes who withdrew before the Games might well be regretting their decision.
Peter Hanlon in Sydney Morning Herald writes, "Here's something you probably haven't read outside India this past fortnight: the people of Delhi have done a terrific job, and are entitled to be proud of their Games."
Amidst such fulsome praise, there is the odd discordant note too. New York Times carried an article headlined, "India declares Commonwealth Games a success". The article says, "To many analysts and critics, the self-congratulations were misplaced, and opposite lessons should be drawn, as the Commonwealth Games demonstrated the inability of India's bureaucracy to efficiently deliver, even on a project intended as a show piece to the world."
The latest headlines are: Delhi's Commonwealth showing a winner, after all (Vancouver Sun) and CWG 2010: India has every right to be proud after torrid build-up (Daily Telegraph), Games 2010 finish with India triumphant (Guardian) and Delhi bellyachers the losers as Games overcome hurdles in strong finish (Sydney Morning Herald).
Sydney Morning Herald even carried an online poll; the question being, Would you rate the Delhi Games a success? 81% said yes. The Toronto Star says that for the host nation "the greatest legacy of the Games" is "not the medal total, but the potential launching of a sports culture in India."
Randy Starkman of Toronto Star, writes, "Just as Canada is dominated by hockey and everything else is a distant second, the same applies to India and cricket. But at these Games so many new heroes were born for India, such as the women's 4x400-metre relay team.
"Sport in general hasn't been promoted in this nation, but women's sport has been a total afterthought. These Games have the potential to create a shift in that. Already, there is talk of India going after an Olympics. That would have been laughed off before the Games started, and rightly so. But they've likely put themselves back in the running by pulling this off in good fashion.
"Obviously, they're going to have to ramp up their organizational resources and improve their preparation and planning to have any shot at it. But Rio's got the 2016 Olympics and it could be argued these Games were more impressive than the 2007 Pan Ams staged in Brazil."
John Mackinnon also writes in the Vancouver Sun, "Having covered the Pan American Games in Rio, which that equally problematic city leveraged into a successful Olympic bid, it seems fair to say that Delhi's organizational effort was in many ways superior to Rio's."
At least for a section of the foreign press, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit endures as the hero of the Games. "It was Dikshit, at the collective urging of countries such as Canada, Scotland, England, Wales and New Zealand, who applied the necessary discipline and organizational muscle to tidy up the Village and avert more embarrassment than Delhi had already suffered," says the same newspaper.
Interestingly, the Canadian athletes are nearly unanimous in lauding Delhi's Games. "Our buses were always on time, the competitions always started on time," said Canadian flag-bearer Tara Whitten, winner of one gold and three bronze in cycling. "On the track, that's actually unheard of, to be as on time as we were."
Jessica Halloran writes in the Australian newspaper Courier Mail, "In the end we all were in love with India - they were gracious hosts - but we never fell for the Games' organising committee. Ask any Delhiite and they would speak about the shame this bungling, bumbling and self-serving committee had brought upon them. But the people of India, their goodwill and their kindness, triumphed over the OC's chaos and corruption in the end. Somehow it all came together."
She also points out that "during the Games a tuk-tuk or Embassy cab was far more reliable than the transport the OC provided."
London-based newspaper Daily Telegraph was one of the most vicious critics of the Games. Jacquelin Magnay writes in the same newspaper, "Such was the low expectations of a struggling and ineffectual organising committee, fuelled by the betel-nut stains on lavatory bowls, piles of rubble and unfinished construction at the athletes' village two weeks before the opening ceremony, the Games were going to be a success if they started, and a huge success if they finished."
Nonetheless, the newspaper also admits, "The Indians have a right to feel warm about their justified claims that the Games were happy and reasonably well run, amid the country's bigger social and economic struggles."
It also quotes Kelly Holmes, president of Commonwealth Games England, as saying that athletes who withdrew before the Games might well be regretting their decision.
Peter Hanlon in Sydney Morning Herald writes, "Here's something you probably haven't read outside India this past fortnight: the people of Delhi have done a terrific job, and are entitled to be proud of their Games."
Amidst such fulsome praise, there is the odd discordant note too. New York Times carried an article headlined, "India declares Commonwealth Games a success". The article says, "To many analysts and critics, the self-congratulations were misplaced, and opposite lessons should be drawn, as the Commonwealth Games demonstrated the inability of India's bureaucracy to efficiently deliver, even on a project intended as a show piece to the world."
