As the organisers of Delhi 2010 despair at the onslaught of media criticism which has accompanied the build-up to India’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games, you can’t help but feel that from the outset the country was on a hiding to nothing.
For rapidly developing nations hosting a major sporting tournament is increasingly the method of choice for broadcasting one’s strengthened international standing; a party open to the world celebrating newfound confidence while simultaneously paying homage to historic regional traditions. It is an opportunity for social and cultural barriers to be broken down, a chance to attract vital economic investment from multi-national companies, and of course, an opportunity for the local population to take in high level competition from top level athletes.
Witness the bombast with which China hosted the Olympic Games in 2008, the historic role of the rugby union World Cup in celebrating South Africa’s end to Apartheid in 1995 and the praise earned this summer when FIFA’s global spectacular climaxed at Soccer City in Johannesburg. Likewise, looking to the future, optimism surrounds Brazil’s 2014 World Cup arrangements while the awarding of the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro has further captured the hearts and minds of the international community despite obvious planning problems ahead. Even in Europe, Poland and Ukraine’s joint venture to host football’s Euro 2012 has seen them beat off competition from Italy with a planned legacy which should help them shake off the stigma of their communist past.
The runt of the litter
Alas while the Olympics and football’s World Cup and European Championships are held in high regard by competitors, marketers and audiences alike, it is generally accepted that as a sporting spectacle the Commonwealth Games is very much the runt of the litter.
As such India’s hosting of the 19th incarnation of the Games has struggled to strike a chord with the imaginations of western athletes and media who have so often talked of the ‘spirit’ which accompanies the more glamorous sporting festivals. Let’s not beat about the bush, if India was hosting the Olympics there is no doubt that athletes from these shores would be jumping on planes as scheduled, regardless of a collapsed bridge here and a crumbling roof there.
At the end of the day an Olympic gold is an Olympic gold; overcoming challenges both on and off the track is what it’s all about. A Commonwealth Games medal, well what’s that worth? Apparently for many of the high profile athletes from Britain’s potential 2012 team not much. But with good reason.
Priorities
Preparations for the European Championships held in Barcelona earlier in the summer took precedence while maintaining health and fitness ahead of a trip to the World Championships in South Korea next year has also been prioritised by several team members from England, Scotland and Australia. It’s not an unexpected state of affairs with former Olympic triple-jump gold medallist Jonathan Edwards telling Sport.co.uk recently that “lots of athletes have decided not to go and with good reason. There are health issues when you travel to Delhi, the athletes don’t want to put themselves in a position where they give themselves a bad stomach bug or dengue fever so close to 2012.
Reflecting on his own experience of strict training regimes, Edwards continued,“October is a time when athletes are normally resting and getting ready to prepare for the next season, they’ve already had a European championship after all. The Commonwealth won’t be the highest quality although you might see the next generation of athletes coming through.”
Lack of competition
That lack of quality in the field is not of course just down to those who choose not to attend; it’s also an integral flaw of a competition which from the outset excludes any country not part of the defunct British Empire. While it’s true that 72 nations including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Jamaica and the devolved powers of Great Britain will send competitors to India, the strength of opposition from participants from the South Pacific islands of Niue, Nauru and Tokelau is very much open to debate.
In truth few, if any, world records will be threatened during the two weeks in Delhi. Respected athletes with Olympic pedigree should seal victory in both track and field with ease. It’s for this reason that sacrificing participation in India has come very easily for the likes of Phillips Idowu and Christine Ohuruogu.
Pointing the blame
Calls have been made in certain quarters that those individuals who refuse to represent England in the forthcoming Games should be penalised with the removal of National Lottery funding, a notion which smacks of short-term thinking, especially with the Olympics heading to London in less than two years.
Athletes cannot be held responsible for the manner in which the already struggling image of the Commonwealth Games has been dragged through the mud; the blame lies squarely at the feet of Commonwealth Games Federation chairman, Mike Fennell, and his team’s failure to monitor Delhi’s planning committee.
Nine days remain until the opening ceremony. Talk should be focused on the last minute arrangements that accompany any major Games, but instead corruption and incompetence has taken a stranglehold. Cleaners, builders and volunteers are holding management to ransom by refusing to finish fundamental work on the athletes’ village until wage increases have been secured, while the bridge collapse earlier this week has left 23 injured, five critically. It has been nothing short of a public relations disaster and one which Delhi’s organisers have failed to stem. The drip-feed of ineptitude being leaked to the western media has reached epic proportions.
A tough tide to swim against
While the overall picture may not be as bad as is being depicted on the 24 hour rolling news channels; there are obviously safety worries and concerns over conditions facing athletes on their arrival. A recent history of terrorist attacks, an outbreak of dengue fever in the Indian capital and rising floodwaters from a particularly harsh monsoon season certainly have not helped. $2.5 billion has been spent so far, more than double the amount spent by Melbourne to host the games in 2006; it’s a significant investment and one which India would have hoped might at least be recognised by the more developed nations of the Commonwealth.
It has not been the case. Perhaps the start of the Games will help turn the tide, although the chances of Delhi overcoming the intense negativity to win over the hearts of the Commonwealth appears unlikely.
The fact is that a uniting Commonwealth spirit, the likes of which helped the Games sustain itself for much of the 20th century, does not exist anymore. The world has changed and so therefore have people’s valuation of a competition which cannot attract the best of the best. India will do its best to enjoy its own coming out party, but with so much of the world not allowed to attend and those clutching invitations wondering whether to turn up; it could come at a high cost.