Editorial: India's woes are lesson for future hosts

Opinion

At the start of the week, the threat of terrorism was the darkest of the clouds hovering over the Commonwealth Games. In the shortest of times, that has changed. Previous vague concerns about standards of hygiene and sanitation in New Delhi, especially at the athletes' village, have acquired considerable substance. Days before the arrival of the first competitors, a Scottish official has described the residential blocks as "unsafe and unfit for human habitation". New Zealand's chef de mission, Dave Currie, has been equally critical, and even questioned whether the event might have to be cancelled. That will not happen. It is too late to pull the plug, and too much is on the line.

Staging the Games in India was always a calculated risk. Standards of cleanliness were always unlikely to match Western expectations, as much as Indian workers were instructed to meet them. International teams touring the country have always had to cope with this as best they could. Character was built in the process. Nonetheless, it was expected that India would come up close to scratch, if only to showcase itself in much the same way as Beijing did when it hosted the 2008 Olympics.

Somehow, this has not happened. New Delhi was chosen to host the 19th edition of the Games in November 2003, but construction of the venues began late and has been dogged by cost blow-outs and allegations of corruption, fraud and mismanagement. Yesterday's collapse of a footbridge at the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, which injured 23 construction workers, merely added to the picture of a country mired in chaos.

Yet this wounding of Indian pride will ensure the Games proceed as scheduled. The Commonwealth Games Federation has taken its complaints about the village to the top level of Government. Intervention from that quarter will surely result in the input of whatever manpower and resources are required to fix the problem, even if that means, as the Australian chef de mission, Steve Moneghetti, suggested, that two weeks' work needs to be done in two days. If further incentive is required, it lies in India's hope of using the Games as a springboard for a bid to host the Olympics in 2020 or 2024. Things have already gone awry. More problems with venues or the village would kill off India's prospects.

In its favour is the fact that countries will pull out of the Games only as an absolute last resort. As much as sport and politics would not mix in an ideal world, India's importance as an emerging economic powerhouse and a counterpoint to China dictates that nothing should be done to upset relations. India cannot be embarrassed over its staging of such an event. It is far from coincidental that England has been noticeably less critical than New Zealand of India's preparations. Its chef de mission, Craig Hunter, said England intended to compete. The athletes' village was, he claimed, better than that provided for the Beijing Olympics.

Realistically, where England goes, the rest of the Commonwealth will follow. New Zealand is not about to strike out alone. The problems are, as the Commonwealth Games Federation suggests, "fixable", and the event will start on October 3.

But lessons need to be learned. The Games have rarely strayed outside Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, but it is desirable to increasingly involve Commonwealth nations in Asia and Africa. Hosts will, however, have to expect far closer scrutiny of their preparations. As much as the last-minute scares in New Delhi have wounded India's pride, they have also damaged the whole concept of the Commonwealth Games.