Game for the Commonwealth

By BRONWYN SELL

There's no receptionist at the tiny world headquarters of the Commonwealth Games Federation in London. Somewhere beyond boxes of brochures stacked in the narrow corridor, someone is whistling. Otherwise the place seems deserted.

It's not what you might expect at the powerhouse of Games administration - the equivalent of the International Olympic Committee - a month out from the biggest Commonwealth Games yet, Manchester 2002.

There's a pile of mail taking up a quarter of the Mayfair floorspace in the elevator, which is disguised as a cupboard and about the same size.

Through the first door on the right, in an office which doubles as a boardroom, is the man doing the whistling, neatly bearded and exuberant federation chief executive Michael Hooper, born and bred in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

"It's 100 miles an hour here. Busy times," he says, eyeing a hefty document - one of many piles of paper on his desk - entitled Draft World Anti-Doping Code.

That you can walk straight off the street and into his office is testament to a reputation for frankness and accessibility Hooper developed in nine years with the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC). He might now have one of the top jobs in international sports administration, but Hooper will not hide behind a shield of diplomacy. He hasn't turned down a media interview since he arrived in London in late 2000 and will happily speak his mind - at length - on almost any subject.

"I don't hide from anything. I address it. You might not like what I say, but I'm the messenger and I will talk about it."

Hooper rescues the mail from the elevator and opens a letter from New Zealand, written by a contact from his former job. At the bottom, scrawled in big letters, are the words, "Come home Mike, we need you."

Hooper chuckles heartily, but there is little chance of him returning. "This is a great role. The Commonwealth Games movement is going from strength to strength. I owe a lot to New Zealand - and to the people in sport in New Zealand, but I've got a new life up here and things are going well."

He misses the camaraderie of his old job as NZOC secretary-general - "the best job in Kiwi sport" - and, like most New Zealanders in London, he misses wide open spaces. However, the 43-year-old is satisfied he's made a commitment that's likely to take him out of New Zealand for the rest of his working life.

He says some Britons see his typically New Zealand candid approach as refreshing, and some are taken aback. "But at the end of the day they know where they stand."

"I got asked the other day, 'You've been here 18 months Mr Hooper, do you consider yourself British?' I said, 'No, I'm a New Zealander.' Stupid question ... Home to me is where Mum and Dad are." (Whakarongo, for the record, near Palmerston North.)

Hooper says he's doing his bit for the good of sport worldwide, and it's clear from the gleam in his green eyes that he means it.

Hooper makes his journey to the top of world sports administration sound almost flukish.

There he was, 29, and about to be made redundant from the liquor licensing trust in Johnsonville, Wellington. He aimed high and applied for two jobs. One was working for Peter Dale, head of the Hillary Commission, the other was at the New Zealand Olympic Committee. Dale - who he later worked alongside closely - didn't take him. The committee did.

"I was an arrogant young thing - of course I've matured since - but I think you've got to be confident.

"I think they did take a punt on me, because they were prepared to give me a chance, to see if I could deliver. They showed the confidence in me and I believe I lived up to their expectations.

"I was very lucky that I had nine years at the New Zealand Olympic Committee. Loved every minute of it. I've got a lot to thank people who showed confidence in me back in New Zealand for. People like [former NZOC president] Sir David Beattie, who really did, I suppose, take a chance with me when they employed me way back in 1991. I mean, who was this guy coming from the liquor trade?"

After surviving a "very sharp learning curve" at the NZOC he was bumped up to secretary-general, and applied for the federation job in 2000. He still can't work out why he was chosen.

He arrived in London at the start of a long and harsh English winter and hit the ground running. He had to - there was no time for a long induction and few staff to shoulder the work. But his work in New Zealand had prepared him well. He'd been involved with every Commonwealth and Olympic Games from Albertville to Sydney, had lived and breathed sporting issues and sporting politics for nine years. And for the things he didn't know, he had an impressive network of sporting contacts worldwide to ask.

"All of that has been really helpful. I didn't get the chance to have a sharp learning curve. It was like, 'Get in here and make it happen'. And I think that I've made a difference, and that the small team we have has made a difference to the way the federation is seen. It has been exciting. The workload is very high, we have a small office and we don't have the resources of other organisations. But I do think we're delivering."

As evidence, he reels off facts and figures: 17 sports, many of which the Commonwealth dominates; more than 5000 athletes and officials; best ticket sales. Athletics, boxing, table tennis and hockey finals sold out, all swimming and gym sold out. Netball finals sold out.

"That'll be New Zealand and Australia no doubt. And," he adds, leaning into my tape recorder, "New Zealand will win. Like the rugby [sevens] final here, which is also sold out, New Zealand will win. We've got to be positive."

He leans back and chuckles.

Hooper passes the credit for the ticket sales to the organising committee, which shoulders most administration work. The federation comes in to oversee things. Otherwise he's mostly involved in the wider issues: managing the Games franchise, awarding future games, liaising with the 72 nations and territories in the Games, and international sporting federations, learning lessons from the Olympic Games and sharing ideas. "Its crazy to reinvent the wheel," he insists. His is not so much a decision-making role as an administrative one - the decisions are made by the federation general assembly.

"It is certainly the bigger picture issues, the gigantism, the quality of the product, the branding, the image, the promotion of the Games, the movement."

He says he's "pretty proud" of the federation's new website, www.thecgf.com He's confident it will make journalists' jobs easier, and punters too will have the Games' history and statistics at their fingertips.

"You know how you always wonder how Keith Quinn can remember; 'And this is the first time since whatever year that New Zealand's won this'? Well, he doesn't have to do the research now because it's all done for him."

But, he says, the test of his effectiveness will come this month and the next, and the athletes will be the judges. If they go home saying they thought it was a good Games, Hooper will take that as proof of success.

"The real buzz [at the New Zealand Olympic Committee] was knowing that what we did there, and what I do now, really is contributing to making the Games an exciting event for the athletes. And the real measure is how they perceive the Games, and enjoy the experience - and I'm sure they will."

Hooper is enthusiastic to bursting about the role of the Games beyond the fields, courts, gyms and pools. He says they are the single biggest unifier of the Commonwealth, the most visible public manifestation of the Commonwealth in action.

"The Commonwealth Games should be a reflection of the Commonwealth and what the Commonwealth is good at, and it certainly is that. We have a quality product reflective of the Commonwealth. That is growing and will continue to evolve."

His passion for the Games extends far beyond his involvement. He remembers being captivated by the 1974 Christchurch Games as a teenager.

"I can still sing to you the song, Steve Allen's Join Together". And, right there in the heart of Mayfair, he does - "It's time for every race and creed to throw away their cares ... "

For all this passion, Hooper wasn't any great athlete. More of an armchair fan made good.

"I don't have any particular claim to fame in sport. I absolutely suck at golf. No representative stuff. Normal schoolboy rugby and softball. But I know what I did in New Zealand with my colleagues back at the New Zealand Olympic Committee and the national sporting bodies made a difference. And I know we can do the same here."