Scots more than satisfied with Commonwealth Games preparations

NEW DELHI - After the avalanche of bad publicity related to the XIXth Commonwealth Games, which nearly buried Delhi last week, the mood has taken a decisive swing in a positive direction, Scottish athletes feel.

While admitting that there have been inadequacies and frustrations, the underlying impression is of a city more exuberant and energetic than anyone would have expected based on the events of last week.

According to the Scotsman, there have been serious errors, but the worst of them may have been rectified just in time.

In the village, there are no dissenting voices now. Instead, members of Team Scotland, and their scottie-dog mascot, were relaxing there, mingling with other teams and with some of the thousands of dancers practising for Sunday’s opening ceremony.

The Delhi organisers are not allowing anyone from the media into the athletes’ accommodation itself, restricting us to the “international zone” which has been highly praised.

The very Scottish officials who were last week demanding rapid improvement are now happy about what has been done, at least in the village, and the athletes who were concerned about what they might find are relaxed and apparently content in their conditions.

Compared to the exalted standards set by Manchester in 2002 and Melbourne in 2006, these Games will look a little homespun and second-rate.

But it is not necessarily a bad thing if the Commonwealth Games, whose organisers like to call them the Friendly Games, stop aspiring to emulate the Olympics - as Melbourne in particular did - and revert instead to their old “Let’s muck in and help each other out” tradition. (ANI)