Message from Melbourne

There are lessons India needs to learn from the Melbourne Games to not repeat past follies when New Delhi hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The Indian Olympics Association must work in tandem with national sports federations and chalk out a well-defined plan.

By Norris Pritam

The just-concluded 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne have come as an eye-opener for India's sports authorities. It's a stern wake-up call for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the Sports Authority of India (SAI), and the Indian government, which will be hosting the next edition of the Games in 2010.

The IOA, as India's national Olympic committee, has to ensure good performances by home athletes in 2010. It is usually the endeavour of the host nation to put up the best show it can. It is of utmost importance for the host nation to figure on top of the medal tally. For instance, in Melbourne Australia topped the tally. If this is achieved, all other shortcomings are put aside.

Due to the current Games, tram and local bus services in Melbourne's business districts were disrupted. Several routes were either rescheduled or services disturbed. But the local commuters, who heavily depend on the city's lifeline, took it in their stride. At the tram and bus stops, one generally met people discussing the previous day's performances or their expectations in the coming events. They never grumbled—all because Australia was doing well, and the citizens were proud of the fact.

One of the main reasons of the Melbourne success story was the will of the people behind the Games. The common man on the streets was extremely polite and courteous. This made all the difference. New Delhi needs to organise several events leading up to the 2010 Games to educate citizens in basic sports and civic manners.

For Indian athletes to perform well, systematic planning is required. At Melbourne, Anju George missed a medal due to wrong planning leading up to the Games. She and her husband-coach, Robert George, opted to go, two months before the Games, to South Africa and Qatar, where there were no organised training sessions or competition. Anju missed out on the vital competitive edge before the Melbourne Games. For a world-class athlete entering an international competition without competing for six months is incomprehensible. She was nowhere at Melbourne, even though Anju had earlier beaten the entire field at other meets. The IOA has to work in tandem with national sports federations and chalk out a well-defined plan before the New Delhi Games.
Hockey saw Indians a disjointed lot. Dirty politics within the Indian Hockey Federation turned the team into a laughing stock on field. No amount of shifting of coaches and players is going to help. What is needed is administrative change and accountability.

In weightlifting, even though Kunjurani Devi won the first medal of the Games, doping incidents overshadowed some good performances. The IOA and the SAI have to resolve this issue and ensure that Indian sport remains dope-free. Comprehensive reports need to be sought from the governmental delegations that visited Melbourne in their official capacity. The biggest culprit here was Edwin Raju, a weightlifter from the Indian army. And this happened when Chief of Army Staff General J J Singh was in Melbourne. The army's claim to train Indian sportspersons to reach Olympic heights seems mere talk.

New Delhi organisers have another gigantic task ahead of them: it is already late and not much work has begun. A big delegation of the Delhi government, including chief minister Shiela Dikshit, was in Melbourne. But what did it learn? Just after the Games, Delhi Vidhan Sabha speaker Shoaib Iqbal accused the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWG 2110) of misappropriating government money. He was referring to the Rs 40 crore that the CWG 2010 spent on the cultural pageant during the closing ceremony of the Melbourne Games. The amount had already been made public and sanctioned by the Delhi government.

The amount may have been a bit too much for the 11 minutes of dance sequences by Bollywood stars. But where was Iqbal when it was being sanctioned? Griping will not help the cause of the Games in the long run. Here it would be pertinent to note that the local Australians did enjoy the performance by Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Lara Dutta.

But they were aghast to know that the Indian stars charged a huge sum to project their country in a foreign land. All the top Australian artists who performed at the opening and closing ceremony of the Games not only did it free of cost, they did not even charge the organisers travel expenses. The Indian stars had their friends, relatives and hangers-on leeched on to them. So much for the Mera Bharat and Beloved Country slogans that they wear on their sleeves.

Joint commissioner (traffic) Qamar Ahmed had an interesting observation when asked for his comments on smooth traffic in Melbourne. "Do you have cycle-rickshaws, bullock carts and jaywalkers on the roads here?” he asked. Qamar Ahmed was also categorical that unless good public transport was made available in Delhi, things would not improve. "I have spoken about this several times, and now it is up to the government to take a decision,'' he said.

A good tram service contributed greatly to the smooth traffic flow during the Games. There were no red beacon lights, or VIP car sirens screeching past. The citizens simply hopped on trams and walked to various venues without disrupting normal traffic arrangements. It was a sight watching Suresh Kalmadi, chairperson of the CWG 2010’s organising committee walking to the Melbourne cricket ground for the closing ceremony. One hopes that the lessons are learnt and one will get to see him repeat the act in 2010.