With a few days to go before the start of the XIX Commonwealth Games in Delhi, all I can think about is bathrooms. Images of the insanitary facilities at the Athletes Village have been splashed all over the world's media, as India's very own DIY disaster unfolds. I'm not a fan of soap operas (or "continuing dramas" as they're known in TV circles) but this compelling saga of organisational ineptitude and political points-scoring really takes some beating.
Then there's the outbreak of schadenfreude that could prove even more dangerous to the Games than the dengue fever that's laid low a couple of Indian cyclists. If they awarded medals for sabotaging sporting events, administrators, politicians, and reporters would have the mosquitoes beaten hands down.
Let's be honest, paw prints and unidentified brown substances in the athletes' quarters are the least of the problems affecting these Games. Last week a footbridge linking a car park with Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium collapsed, injuring more than 20 people. Now analysts at Control Risks have warned visitors of a heightened security threat in the rest of the country, because resources have been deployed to protect the main Games venues.
With Her Majesty the Queen otherwise engaged, does anyone really care whether these Games should be officially opened by Prince Charles, or India's President Pratibha Devisingh Patil? Instead of squabbling about protocol, they might as well get someone to dress up like Shera, the cartoon tiger who is the official mascot for the event. According to the official website, "Shera is also a large-hearted gentleman who loves making friends and enthusing people to come out and play." To me, he looks like a slightly more timid version of Tony, the ebullient cartoon cat who adorns cartons of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.
Surely the elephant (or the tiger) in the room here, is whether there's still a place for these "friendly games" in an increasingly crowded sporting calendar. Watching sport in the 70s, it still felt as though the pursuit of Olympic gold was a really big deal. Now we live in an age in which World Championships in one sport or another seem to be an almost weekly occurrence. For me, the blue riband events in any Olympics have always been swimming and track and field. But since 1993, FINA ("Water is Our World") has been holding the short course World Championships every two years, while the IAAF's World Championships in Athletics started as a four yearly event in 1983 and are now held biennially.
Article comments
1 - STM
We have had the Aussie olympics boss here saying that in hindsight, India probably shouldn't have been given the Comm Games.
The very serious security and dengue fever issues (many more cases of dengue than is usual in Delhi have been reported in the lead-up to the Games) are worries on their own, but it's the state of the Games village and some of the facilities that has left me wondering.
However, the Indian government isn't wondering; their own investigators have found mass rorting on contracts, inflated costs, and poor building standards that don't meet Indian regulations (including those for electricity and plumbing).
Someone's been pocketing the cash and the sad part of it is that instead of seeing this is an opportunity to showcase India to the world, shysters have instead decided it's a great opportunity to make a quick buck at everyone else's expense (mainly the Indian taxpayer).
That's the real issue and one about which India should be ashamed. This rorting has happened despite the Indian government's best attempts to ensure it didn't happen. Imagine if you were simply trying to get a building permit in Delhi for a house.
Let's hope the Games go off without a hitch.
Go Australia!
2 - STM and the axis of evil
Netball ... "a sedate, non-contact version of the game".
Lol. Well, hardly sedate. The pace and speed of the game, especially at international level, is one of the reasons it has one of the highest levels of knee and ankle injuries of any team sport.
And it's only THEORETICALLY non-contact. You haven't been wearing family-sized coke-bottle glasses have you Susannah, whilst watching?? Most of the top teams have a well-oiled dirty tricks department.
Thorpie's actually not too bad commentating, although Britons tend to bristle at any Aussie accent except Richie Benaud's.
3 - Susannah Straughan
Actually I was thinking more of my own experiences playing netball back in the 70s!
I'm hoping BBC viewers might get to see Thorpie as well as hear him. Sharron Davies's comments tend to get lost amidst the all teeth and the cleavage.
Oh, and you're wrong about the Aussie accents. We Brits just don't like know-it-alls.
4 - STM and the axis of evil
"We Brits just don't like know-it-alls."
Was that delivered without a hint of irony?
5 - Dr Dreadful
Stan, no. It is really hard to like a know-it-all when you actually do know it all!
;-)
6 - STM and the axis of evil
Lol.
Yes, Doc, that's it, isn't it? And of course, we do so love it here when the to-and-froms come out from the Old Dart and start telling us how to do everything whilst not so subtly looking down their noses at the colonials and pointing out our collective flaws ;)
Expat author Kathy Lette complains that she spent an awful lot of time looking up the nostrils of English folk the first few years she was over there.
Even, she says, the nostrils of people shorter than her.
It echoes my own experience, so I thoroughly concur.
Having dual citizenship can lull people into a false sense of security. By claiming to be British (not a total untruth), you find out what they would be saying behind your back if they thought you were simply Orrs-tray-lian.
7 - Susannah Straughan
STM, or whatever your name is, I thought these boards were for discussing the articles not trying to get a rise out of the writers.
You seem determined to take offence at my "know-it-alls" comment and characterise me as another stuck up Brit.
Can I just point out that you have the enormous benefit of anonymity here. I do not.
For the record, my comment related to sportsmen like Shane Warne and David Campese, who (if memory serves) have mouthed off about England teams in the past.
That's it. I'm not against Australia or Australians.
Does that satisfy you?
8 - STM and the axis of evil
Lol.
Not really, although Warnie and Campo are also known to their own countrymen/women as loudmouths.
However, they do join a long list of sportsmen from both ends of the UK-Australia divide who thought it served them best to mouth off. In Campo's case, the problem is a loose connection between brain and mouth. Warnie's only excuse is that he's a bogan and thus doesn't really have an excuse.
But such niceties are in no way confined to the Australian end of that divide.
And in the case of those two fellows, I'd have thought that whilst known for mouthing, it's not all they're known for; they at least had the benefit of being very, very good at what they do. The only saving grace here is backing up stupid words with great performances on the field.
And for the record, I'm not really THAT anonymous.