Australian paper praises Delhi for ‘terrific’ Games

SYDNEY - The people of Delhi have done a terrific job and deserve better than the carping, nitpicking and borderline racism that featured in the media coverage during the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games, an Australian newspaper says.

Neither the people of Delhi, nor of India as a whole, can be held accountable for the incompetence of Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and his deputy Lalit Bhanot, the Age said on its website.

“They had let their country down, and their failure to meet basic expectations should ensure neither is left in charge of running even the local tandoori chook raffle in future,” it said.

“Stop the bellyaching, come out and play,” one Indian TV channel had pleaded this week. “They had a point. Reciting by rote the A to Z of Delhi disasters is a tiresome sport, mainly when there is light where some have chosen to see only darkness,” Age said.

“But why notice the peepal and shisham trees lining Delhi’s broad avenues, or the immaculately tended roundabout gardens, when there’s a ‘Dirty Delhi’ headline to be had on a story about cycling’s road racers encountering heat and dust?

“Cyclists on open roads sweating and breathing dust? Surely not. Why listen to road race bronze medallist Chloe Hosking saying she often rides in 40-degree heat back home, or anything from heat to sleet in Europe, and that “this is actually quite enjoyable”?

Piddling details like this can wait until after the punchline when you’re searching for new ways to tell the Delhi 2010 joke.

Why entertain the possibility that when men’s gold medallist Allan Davis says encountering dogs and a monkey was “something to remember”, it might actually be a fond memory?

When local fauna infiltrates the Tour de France it’s seen as a quaint taste of Gallic life. Here, it’s a primitive security breach.

The mess that greeted some teams upon arrival was inexcusable, and another knock on the organising committee. But as the wallahs who sweep streets with brooms made of twigs would attest, even the biggest mess can be cleaned.

Security has been the major stumbling block to these Games, but the bag searches, pat-downs and scanners have been omnipresent only because many countries wouldn’t have come without them.

The locals’ greatest fear was the abortion of their Games because the Commonwealth shied away from entering the world they inhabit every day.

A colleague who has covered numerous cricket tours in India has a catchcry for the speed bumps you hit along those dusty, dirty roads: “TII - This Is India.” Anyone expecting Melbourne or Beijing should have stayed home or taken a right turn at Albuquerque.