Let Down India Prays for a Commonwealth Success

It's the Indian people I feel sorry for. Having spent a whistle stop 48 hours in Delhi last weekend talking to many senior figures in India's media, and having seen with my own eyes the chaos that still dominates the build up to the Commonwealth Games, there are two conclusions to be drawn.

First, in a country where over 300 million people take home less than two dollars a day can a sporting event that has cost the country at least £2 billion be justified, regardless of India's attempt to proclaim itself as a global economic super power and, second, that the good people of India are embarassed and, in some cases, humiliated by the events that have led to a global media spotlight on the preparation for all the wrong reasons.

We have unlivable conditions in the athlete's village which, even as of today, is the case in many instances, with paw prints from the many stray and in some cases rabied dogs still in the village on the mattresses, human defecation in some of the rooms, along with swarms of insects, small children working outside the unfinished venue exteriors and surrounds, and Indian ministers and Organising Committee officials refusing to take the blame for a job that has had seven years to be completed.

With accusations of corruption flying around, and an Indian Government official saying last week that western standards of hygiene are different to those in India where what was seen saw in the village is acceptable, the many Indians I spoke to were absolutely livid. Still, everyone was extremely helpful and friendly, and the actual venues are perfectly acceptable. Many top sportsmen and women have withdrawn from the Games but it still should be a sporting spectacle and one that I hope, for the sake of a country badly let down by those in charge, concludes as a great success.