Exclusive - Commonwealth Games Chief Stands Behind India as Host

(ATR) Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell tells Around the Rings India is the right host for the competition that opens next week.

"We’ve got to give these people an opportunity to learn how to host these events," he said less than 24 hours after arriving in Delhi for an emergency meeting with Games organizers and city officials.

"India’s the largest Commonwealth country that we have with 1.2 billion people. How will you ever know unless they’re given an opportunity to make an effort?"

Fennell’s comments came on a day when Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said Delhi 2010 never should have happened.

"In hindsight India shouldn't have been awarded the Games," he told reporters in Sydney as his athletes prepared for departure.

The IOC member and former SOCOG exec also suggested the CGF retire its old habit of rotating hosting rights through the usual suspects.

"The Commonwealth Games for its future needs to move away from just the old countries - Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Britain taking turns," Coates said.

"But the problem is, they [India] weren't ready."

Fennell told ATR Coates is entitled to his opinion but that his comments seemed a bit contradictory.

"He said we’ve got to move away from the traditional size and yet he says India shouldn’t have been given the Games in hindsight," Fennell mused.

"Let’s make up our minds about what we want."

Australia was among a who’s who of participating nations to scorn living conditions in the Commonwealth Village earlier this week.

Scotland, Wales and England also threatened to withdraw, instead opting to delay team arrivals.

"There are a number of countries that are waiting, but they’ve confirmed that they’re coming," Fennell said, adding that New Zealand was the last holdout.

The CGF chief met Thursday evening with Indian officials, then Friday morning with those chefs de mission already in Delhi.

Fennell had requested earlier this week the audience of Indian PM Manmohan Singh but said he was not disappointed by his absence because cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar was acting with the full authority of Singh.

"We’re very pleased with the responses we’re getting from the authorities in India," he said of the last-minute planning session.

"The government and various Delhi authorities have sent in a lot of people to clean up the Village, and considerable progress has been made."

Fennell admitted the living quarters are a work-in-progress and that doubt lingers among the delegations he met with Friday.

"They’re still some criticisms," he said, "and these are being attended to with a great deal of urgency."

The Commonwealth Village will house more than 7,000 athletes, officialsand family, some of whom have already moved in.

Fennell said some of the 34 apartmenttowers are in very good condition while others need remedial work and better cleaning.

He would not disclose to ATR how many of the 11- and 12-story blocks are ready for occupancy nor which athletes have made themselves at home.

England, meanwhile, put its 16-strong men’s hockey squad in a hotel-based holding camp. The country’s lawn bowlers also arrived Friday but had already planned a hotel stay until the Games open Oct. 3.

"It’s nice to see [the Village] for ourselves," hockey player Ben Middleton said in a statement.

"There are bits and pieces to be done to bring them up to standard. A couple of days will makea difference."

Neither 400m Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu, triplejump world champion Phillips Idowu nor 1500m Commonwealth champion Lisa Dobriskey made the trip for England.

The list of eligible athletes to have withdrawn due to injury, fatigue, security concerns or otherwise includes Jamaican track stars Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser; Kenyan distance runners David Rudisha, Asbel Kiprop and Linet Masai; English marathoner Paula Radcliffe; and Australian tennis players Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur.

Fennell said the spate of snubs throughout this week disappointed him but would not jeopardize the level of competition in Delhi.

"There are still a lot of other high-profile athletes that will be taking part in the 17 different sports," he insisted.

Cyclists Geraint Thomas of Wales and Greg Henderson of New Zealand became the latest medal hopefuls to pull out Friday, and fellow rider Mark Renshaw from Australia is rumored to be the next.

Still, a national team has yet to withdraw, a distinction that has to please Fennell after a week dominated by threats to do exactly that.

"I’m feeling more positive now," he said, "but I still have to watch through the next 24 to 48 hours to see that the momentum that has been developed so far continues."

Many had viewed the competition as a stepping stone to India’s first Olympic Games.

Fennell, however, refused to speculate on whether Delhi 2010 has compromised India 2020.

"I don’t want to go there right now," he said.

"I’m concentrating on the Commonwealth Games."

Written by Matthew Grayson.