New Delhi, Aug 14: Still rejoicing over the medal haul at Manchester, sports minister Uma Bharti is determined to bring the Commonwealth Games to India in 2010 and to achieve that she wants the inaugural Afro-Asian games here next year to be a great success. "For us to win the bid for the Commonwealth Games, it is necessary that we make the staging of the Afro-Asian Games (AAG) a great success," Bharti said while presiding over the AAG organising committee meeting here today.
The inaugural edition of the games which were to be held here in November last year, had to be postponed because of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The new dates of October 24 to November 1, next year were ideal, Bharti, who is chairperson of AAGOC, said.
"Sheroo is back," said Suresh Kalmadi, president of the Indian Olympic Association and working chairman of AAGOC. Sheroo is the royal Bengal Tiger and mascot of AAG.
The new dates, Kalmadi said, would give enough time for IOA to find good sponsors for the Afro-Asian Games though on the organisational front there was not much time to put things in order.