Thaindian News

Sydney, Aug 15 (IANS) Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite believes the constant criticism surrounding the New Delhi Commonwealth Games needs to stop.
Crosswhite said some people are trying to stop or derail the Games and suggested that the local media has fuelled the anti-Delhi campaign.

“You should not just push for getting the Games cancelled. A lot of people out there I think are trying to do that. I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it’s fair to the Indians. I don’t think it’s fair to the Commonwealth Games or to the athletes,” the Sydney Morning Herald Sunday quoted Crosswhite as saying.

Taking a dig at the Indian media, he added: “Their media is just unbelievable. They are crucifying each other. There is nothing we can do about that.”

Less than 50 days are left before the Games kick off in New Delhi Oct 3 and Crosswhite acknowledged that the infrastructure is not complete but facilities in place by now are the first of their kind.

“The Games Village is one of the best the athletes have ever stayed at. They have quality apartments, two athletes to a bathroom - we have never had that before.”

“Sometimes people just ignore all that and see there is a bunch of rubble outside this venue and say that this is pretty hopeless. I don’t think that is necessarily right, nor fair.”

“There have been a lot of Games - Commonwealth and Olympic - which at this point of time hadn’t looked all that flash.”

Crosswhite said the security and the safety levels as of now are acceptable.

“We have said to the athletes all along it’s their decision if they want to go or not. We have gone through the Australian government on this. We will continue to do that each week.”

“I had discussions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That is where we are going to take our lead from as far as any change to our position. At this stage, we are on track to go.”