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India's crumbling Commonwealth Games
Men stand in front of a collapsed pedestrian bridge outside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi Photo: REUTERS
By Ifeanyi Ibeh
September 26, 2010 02:25AM
The Commonwealth Games, which is expected to start in India next Sunday, is set to become the worst edition of the games, not because of the anticipated exploits of the participating athletes but for so many off the field reasons.
With facilities far from ready, amid allegations of corruption and poor workmanship, many have labelled the Delhi Games as the worst Commonwealth Games of all time.
Sections of the athletes' village remain under construction. And to the organisers' woes, a footbridge by the main stadium collapsed on Tuesday injuring workers. A day later, part of a false ceiling in the weightlifting venue caved in, sparking fear among athletes.
Consequently, there has been a spate of withdrawals by participants. Besides insecurity, most of the athletes cited health concerns as the reason for their withdrawal; a situation that has forced Indian authorities to deploy hundreds of additional personnel to get New Delhi ready for the 12-day event. The government even went as far as hiring staff from privately owned hotels to clean up the athletes' village, which is reportedly filled with *****.
The host city is also getting a facelift as its infamous slums have been cleared up with the government even going as far as using an old anti-begging law to arrest beggars in a desperate attempt to clear up most of New Delhi's estimated 60,000 street beggars, majority of whom cannot survive without begging for alms.
Uninhabitable accommodation
By Tuesday, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) said the athletes' village was "uninhabitable" with rubble in doorways and malfunctioning toilets, along with urgent electrical problems.
With several international news networks showing footages and photographs regarding the poor state of facilities for the Commonwealth Games, thousands of labourers were deployed to work around the clock to finish sports facilities and the athletes' village for the games expected to draw 7,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries.
Lalit Bhanot, spokespersono for the organisers however believes media reports were exagerated. Bhanot said contrary to reports, the athletes village was "probably one of the best ever".
"Everyone has different standards about cleanliness. The Westerners have different standards, we have different standards," Bhanot said.
Bhanot's statement was however unacceptable to Australia's Olympic Committee president John Coates who is of the view that the Commonwealth Games should never have been awarded to India.
"I don't think it is a cultural thing. When you agree to host (a competition) you are required to provide the basics in terms of health and hygiene for the athletes," Coates said.
Crisis talks
Coates' statement, which came on Friday, was however preceded by moves aimed at remedying the situation by Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, who chaired crisis talks with senior officials in a desperate bid to avert what is turning out to be a big embarrassment for his government.
The move even got a nod of approval from the CGF, which said that New Delhi was succeeding in fixing the problems especially with regards to the state of hygiene within the athletes' village.
Despite the government's frantic efforts to remedy the situation, many are still appalled with the fact that preparations are way behind schedule for the Games, which was awarded to India seven years ago.
"It is a sad state of affairs indeed and, psychologically, puts a question mark against India's capacity to deliver," said Amit Mitra, the general secretary of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, India's leading business lobby group.
As the authorities rush to get venues ready for Sunday's opening ceremony and avert the looming international embarrassment, safety and quality have been compromised. It is also becoming obvious that the government is already over their initial budget for the event.
Too expensive for comfort
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar hopes the competition is ‘unsuccessful'. Aiyar, a former Sports Minister said the funds, estimated between £2billion and £4billion should have been put better.
"If the Commonwealth Games are successful, they will further organise Asian Games and other events... I will be happy if the Games are spoilt," he said.
The original budget approved by the Indian government back in April 2007 was £500m but in a country where child mortality rates are the highest in the world and an estimated 700 million do not have access to a toilet, there is the direct human cost.
Campaigners claim nearly 100 construction workers have died on Commonwealth Games sites, from accidents or contagious illness contracted in the unhygienic and crowded camps set up as temporary accommodation. Hundreds more, they also say, have been injured.
Bribery and corruption claims
The games have also been blighted by widespread allegations of bribery and corruption with India's Central Bureau of Investigation and Vigilance Commission saying at the end of July that it had discovered irregularities in contracts for 16 Commonwealth Games-related projects including the athletes' village swimming pool, training hall, and athletic track, among others.
Investigators also placed the spotlight on two high-ranking officials over transfer of money to a London-based firm for services during the Queen's Baton Relay in London without any proper paperwork. These included car hire services, portable toilets and road barriers put in place during the launch of the Commonwealth Games' torch relay in London last October.
The investigations look likely to continue long after the closing ceremony on October 13 but a more major blight on the Games has been the spate of withdrawals by top athletes from the event.
Withdrawals
Sprinters Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown, cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendelton, Australian swimmer Cate Campbell, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and tennis players Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt, as well as the French Open finalist Samantha Stosur had long pulled out from the Games.
Kenya's David Rudisha, who broke the 800 metres world record twice, last month, has also pulled out of the games likewise the top British duo of world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu, and Christine Ohuruogu. Idowu gave security concerns as the reason for his withdrawal.
"Sorry people but I have children to think about. My safety is more important to them than a medal," he said on his Twitter page.
There's a possibility that more elite athletes will pull out before the start of the games. But to Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Organising Committee "It is no big deal as new stars will emerge from the Games."
Nigeria struggling
Nigeria's team were scheduled to depart for the Indian capital on Saturday following a nod of approval, a few days earlier, from Team Nigeria's Chef de Mission, Elias Gora.
"At this stage, we are happy with the facilities we have been provided. All we want is a safe environment for our teams from the health point of view, good, clean food, proper training and competing facilities, transport to and from the venues, and safety of our athletes. From what we can see, all those needs are being met," Gora, who was in New Delhi, said on Thursday. But irrespective of Gora's optimism,
it is highly doubtful whether Team Nigeria will be able to better its performance from the 1994 games in Victoria, Canada when the team returned home with close to 40 medals.
The boxing team was billed to embark on a training tour of Germany but had to, in the absence of funds,
settle for the Edo state capital, Benin-City; an embarrassing situation for a sport that has brought many laurels back to Nigeria over the years.
It is also a similar scenario in other associations as the perennial domination of the Nigerian sports terrain by football, as always, reared its ugly head.
First came the national football team's qualification matches for the 2010 World Cup which took precedence over every other sports programme with the Presidency even going as far as inaugurating a Presidential Task Force charged with the responsibility of ensuring the Super Eagles' qualification for the World Cup.
With World Cup qualification secured, a task which was achieved at the expense of money that would have gone a long way in improving the fortunes of Nigeria's lesser sports, attention shifted to the Africa Cup of Nations followed by a search for a new coach after the Super Eagles failed to impress in Angola.
Then came the search for a suitable hotel accommodation for the team. After the World Cup debacle, elections into the football federation took precedence. All of these exhausted money, which would have helped Team Nigeria prepare for the Games.
Football alone wasn't to blame as the leadership crisis within the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) which had been ongoing since as far back as November 2009, also played its part in ensuring that Team Nigeria didn't get the best of preparations for the games.
The NOC crisis now appears to have been resolved with Thursday's elections but only the greatest of optimists will expect Team Nigeria to excel in New Delhi.
India's crumbling Commonwealth Games
