Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Delhi Commonwealth Games seems to be causing headaches everywhere, and for everyone!
What was intended to de be a platform to showcase of India’s ‘coming of age’ prowess, is in danger of turning into a national humiliation.
Already lagging behind on the work front, the Commonwealth games received the latest jolt in form of bickering between CGF appointed CEO Mike Hooper and IOA President Suresh Kalmadi, who also heads the games’ organizing committee.
A day after Kalmadi launched a scathing attack on Hooper, terming him ‘useless’ and called for his sacking, Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell rejected the demand.
“I cannot accede to this request from Mr Kalmadi,” Fennell was quoted as saying by a prominent newspaper.
"We are naturally very surprised and disappointed in receiving this request to remove Mr. Hooper from Delhi given his unquestionable commitment to the successful celebration of the 2010 Commonwealth Games," Fennell wrote in a statement released on Friday.
"He is totally dedicated to the Commonwealth Games movement and we consider that such a personal attack on him is unwarranted.”
"Instead of attacking Mr. Hooper, I urge the Organizing Committee to focus on the issues raised by us in Delhi following our General Assembly on Monday, and to commit to working collaboratively with all stakeholders on addressing these matters with urgency."
After inspecting the preparations for the games along with the delegation of 71 members of the Commonwealth nations, Fennell had appointed an independent panel of foreign experts to monitor preparations on a monthly basis.
This is believed to have irked the IOA.
Kalmadi complained about the independent technical review panel that the CGF plans to set up to oversee the preparations. He said that the "multiplicity" of committees would hamper efforts to deliver the games.
Fennell, who returned to Jamaica this week following high-level CGF meetings in New Delhi which coincided with the one-year countdown to the games, confirmed that the review panel would be implemented and the hiring of experienced international staff must go ahead.
"I made it clear when I was in Delhi that time is short, that no day can be wasted," Fennell said. "We will implement the Technical Review Panel as detailed, and urge the organizing committee to embrace the use of Games experts to fast track systems required for the Games operation.
"The hiring and use of foreign expertise is ... now considered best-practice with organizing committees of major international multi-sport events.
"The goal is to conduct a Commonwealth Games that India can be proud of, setting itself up for other Games in the future, so as to take advantage of its new sporting infrastructure."
Hooper responded to Kalmadi's comments by saying they were "very, very disappointing."
"It seems to be a position of ... instead of addressing the real issues, launching a personal attack which to be quite honest is most unfortunate and totally inappropriate.''
During a media briefing on Thursday, which had begun with the demand that Hooper be removed from Delhi, the IOA put in motion events that it may have no control over in the days to follow.
“Despite spending two years here, Hooper was hampering progress rather than being of any use. We have asked the CGF to call him back and send someone else, who can be useful to us, as his replacement,” Kalmadi had said yesterday.
BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, an executive board member of the IOA, went a step further in lambasting Hooper “These are Commonwealth Games and not Imperial Games. India is a sovereign country. We don’t want others to force things on us and keep us on tenterhooks every month.”
First Published: Saturday, October 17, 2009, 09:12