Randhir whips CWG in China

The mud-slinging associated with last month's Commonwealth Games has travelled from Delhi to Guangzhou, the venue of the Asian Games that kick off tomorrow

The mud-slinging associated with last month's Commonwealth Games has travelled from Delhi to Guangzhou, the venue of the Asian Games that kick off tomorrow.

Olympic Council of Asia secretary general Randhir Singh

Shockingly, the mud carrier is Olympic Council of Asia secretary general Randhir Singh, who slammed the Delhi event. Now, Randhir was part of the CWG Organising Committee. "The CWG and the Asian Games are two totally different games and organising committees.

"There were many delays in infrastructure at Delhi. Firstly, the test events got delayed. Then, we had some other problems which has not been the case in Guangzhou," said Randhir, who is also the secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association.

He did the balancing act by saying, "Delhi did manage to host a good Games where India did extremely well and came out winning 101 medals."

But, the damage had been done as the international media instantly played up the comparison between the two games and downright ridiculed the CWG. "So, finally India has admitted that the 2010 CWG was bad," said one foreign journalist as he left the conference in the midst of laughter from his fellow journos.

Biggest
The Olympic Council of Asia confirmed that this edition of the quadrennial event is the biggest in history in terms of athlete participation. Following the final registration by 45 National Olympic Committees, the official number of athletes set to participate in the November 12-27 Games is up to 9704, which is 184 more than 9520 in Doha four years ago.

The figure is clearly far ahead of the 6000-plus that was attributed to athletes participating in last month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

However, this is no way downplays the New Delhi Games. People in the know would realise that despite the population, traffic and other constraints India did a decent job.
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The below par international competition at certain events too failed to dampen the spirit of the Indians, who filled up the stands to watch some of their favourite events.

Randhir's comments coincide with CWG boss and IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi's ouster as the Congress Parliamentary party secretary on Tuesday. And, the international media referred to Kalmadi's ouster as his "sad demise."