Long Live Commonwealth Games!!

I wrote this on my Facebook Page on September 27, 2010.
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All the infrastructure projects that started in the name of convenience and beautification for CWG are sooner or later going to get completed.. even if it takes two more years. Delhi-ites must appreciate that it is due to the commonwealth athletes, who will leave that behind for our benefit besides the sporting spirit that won't be affected by shoddy/incomplete work today.Now that our pockets are empty and money taken forcefully from us, lets enjoy the benefits that are coming our way even at an enormous cost.. because there is nothing else you could do..pity.

One can always debate whether the idea of having these games was good or not and whether the kind of expenditure that was done was worth the games. But did we have any say in that.. no we din't. Did we have the competence to organise the games.. yes, we can do much more than that, we could possibly produce much larger events much more efficiently and at a lot cheaper .. provided competent people are put in place. (an Indian company managed the entire IT infrastructure for the FIFA cup in South Africa with such fantastic satisfaction/success that it is understood that they have been awarded next FIFA's contract too. But the same company didn't even qualify to participate in CWG Delhi .. obviously they had refused to dilute their standards and were not related to anyone in the OC.) Govt should have brought in such people from wherever they could rather than entrusting the job to people whose motive of getting the game was entirely different.. non- interference from Govt for not appointing a central co-ordination body for everything that was being done, also seemed deliberate.

I fail to understand that since past 60 years we are demanding that the games should be de-linked to politics/politician but nothing happened so far.. Why should a Gill run our Hockey for decades or a Pawar run our cricket. What is there claim for these posts? Why can't we put conditions that unless you have represented the country for certain number of years you will not be considered to run a games organisation. Lets keep an "online" exam like CAT (for IIMs) with the basic criteria of national representation and judge the management ability through the exams. Let there be total transparency in the system of selection of Games body. Should this happen there is no way a country of a billion+ people not get the highest number of medals in any competition. We have no dearth of money to provide infrastructure for games (as we have seen in CWG organisation) and I see no reason or any other hurdle in producing the best sportsmen in any game. Lets demand for expanding RTI for games bodies too. They are in public domain and there is no reason as to why should they not be unanswerable to public for anything they do.

Long Live Commonwealth Games!! Wishing you a great success.. make the best of what is there and produce extra-ordinary results for the world of sports and for the encouragement of all.