Commonwealth Games set to transform Delhi into sporting metropolis

In just 15 months’ time the quickest, fittest, strongest, most talented athletes in the Commonwealth will descend on Delhi, capital of India.

Nearly a decade in the making, the 2010 Commonwealth Games will transform the country's administrative hub into a gigantic sporting metropolis.

Over eleven days, athletes from 71 nations and territories will battle it out for glory in front of the world’s media.

“The Games,” explains Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Michael Hooper, quoting fellow New Zealander and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, “are the ‘single biggest public manifestation of the Commonwealth in action’.”

“They are, in a global sense, the second biggest multi-sport event in the world,” he continues, “second only to the Olympic Games.”

Mr Hooper, a veteran orchestrator of previous competitions in Melbourne and Manchester, is working behind-the-scenes with officials from India’s Organising Committee to ensure that the 2010 Games – to be held between 3 and 14 October next year - is a smooth and stunning showcase of athletes, India and the Commonwealth.

Awarded to India in November 2003, the 2010 Games will mark only the second time that Asia has hosted the competition since it was first inaugurated in 1930.

With the exception of the Commonwealth Youth Games – a smaller event for under-18 year olds held in Pune, about a thousand kilometres from the capital, last year - India has not held a major multi-sport event for nearly 30 years.

“India hasn’t done something like this since the Asian Games of 1982,” explains Mr Hooper. “A Commonwealth Games of today is vastly different. So we’re here to assist and to support the Organising Committee. We’re doing the same for [the 2014 Games in] Glasgow, and we did the same with [the 2002 Games in] Manchester.”

Tennis, for the first time, has been added to the roll call of sports to be featured in the Games. Archery, too, is making a reappearance nearly three decades since it last formed part of the programme. But finding arenas and timetabling programmes for these sports is perhaps the simplest of the Organising Committee's tasks.

With 23 competition venues and 40 training venues to be delivered along with the housing of 8,000 athletes and officials and transportation and infrastructure improvements yet to be finished, India has its work cut out.

Inclusive of infrastructural development, costs estimated at US$1.6 billion will mean that 2010 is set to be the most expensive Games in the competition’s 80-year history. With a price tag this high, there is pressure to ensure that it delivers not only a superb sporting event, but also a lasting legacy for the city’s 15 million citizens.

“Time is no longer their friend,” admits Mr Hooper, referring to the somewhat mammoth task facing the Organising Committee. “There is a lot of work to be done in a short period of time. We’ve said that many times. But if you’re asking me, 'have I any concerns about the bricks and mortar vis-à-vis the venues?' No. It will get there.”

Mr Hooper says that despite the natural trepidation which precedes an event as big as this, there is much “excitement” among the tens of thousands of workers – from civil servants to construction labourers – working hard to ready the city for the Games.

“India is the most populous Commonwealth country, it has a thriving democracy, as we’ve seen from the pretty much trouble-free elections that have just occurred, and it is an economic growth centre. They are a proud nation, and ultimately they will do us proud.”

Already the city is seeing the benefits of improvement works, he says. “It is massive - the things that are being done in the name of the Games to improve transport throughout the city for example. I’ve halved my travel time in the time I’ve been living there through the road developments that have been going on.”

More improvements are set to follow, especially in the take up of sports across Delhi and India, he adds. "It is the very first thing that any country considering bidding for the Games, or any major sporting event, should always look at. What is the legacy benefit, what is the human legacy, and also the reputational legacy?"

Mr Hooper believes, moreover, that the Games will offer the Commonwealth at large an opportunity to make a “statement” about the bonds that tie its members. These, he suggests, can be summed up by the three watchwords of the Commonwealth Games Federation – ‘Humanity, Equality, and Destiny’.

“This is what makes the Games,” adds Mr Hooper, “the coming together of all these cultures to celebrate not only the sporting aspects ... but also the Commonwealth and the principles that the Commonwealth is about.”

“[With the Games] we can really project positive India, incredible India,” he says. “And yes it is incredible.”

The Queen’s Baton Relay, one of the great traditions of the Commonwealth Games, embarks on its journey to Delhi from Buckingham Palace on 29 October 2009. The Baton carries a message from HM Queen Elizabeth II to many thousands of baton bearers across the Commonwealth, with the final runner handing the Baton back at the Opening Ceremony where the message is read aloud and the Games are officially opened.

Secretariat Links:

• Country Profile: India

Related Websites:

• Commonwealth Games Federation