By Dipankar De Sarkar
London, Oct 30 (IANS) The chairman of the organising committee for the 2010 Commonwealth Games formally agreed Friday to focus his energies on the “successful celebration” of the sporting event after a series of meetings in London to iron out a dispute with the international body responsible for it.

Suresh Kalmadi, MP, gave the formal undertaking after several meetings with Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Michael Fennell, Sports Minister M.S. Gill and key members of the Indian Olympic Committee.

Speaking to IANS exclusively hours before the release of a joint statement, CGF Chief Executive Mike Hooper, whose resignation was sought by Kalmadi, said he was happy to let bygones be bygones.

Kalmadi said in a joint statement with Fennell that, “it is critical that our attention is focussed entirely on those functional areas that are essential to the successful celebration of the Games in 2010 and no useful purpose would be served by spending precious time on those issues and we will put this behind us.”

Kalmadi had publicly objected to an international monitoring panel for the Games and called for Mike Hooper, a New Delhi-based Australian, to be sacked - demands that were swiftly rejected by the London-based CGF.

In their joint statement, Fenell and Kalmadi also pledged to “work together as partners, fully recognising and respecting our individual roles and ensuring that our attention is not diverted from meeting all the targets that have been agreed upon.”

“We must now move forward with the sole objective of guaranteeing the successful celebration of the 2010 Games in Delhi.”

Hooper told IANS Thursday that he will not take any action against Kalmadi - neither does he expect the Indian MP to apologise for his statements.

“The (Indian) government, me, Suresh, we are all agreed that have to move forward,” said Hooper, promising the Delhi Games will be “as good as” the ones in Melbourne in 2006 and Manchester in 2002.

“I’m just doing my job, and it’s my job to deliver,” said Hooper, adding he was in London on work.

Separately Sports Minister Gill Thursday night declared the 2010 Games will be held with “great elan”.

“The Games will be, I think, of greater expansion and span than in the past. The stadiums will be state of the art. We welcome anybody who can bring technology and quality,” he told the annual gala dinner of the UK Indian Business Council (UKIBC).

The next step will be the visit of the CGF Coordination Committee to Delhi Dec 14, which will evaluate the progress to date and the achievement of the targets promised by the Organising Committee.

A top official involved in the 2010 Games told IANS that key challenges remain to be addressed for the successful hosting of the Games, including in operational areas, infrastructure, procurement and technology.

“We have a limited amount of time in which to deliver, and it doesn’t help to keep comparing ourselves with the Beijing Olympics. There is no absolutely comparison in the amounts of money spent - the Chinese spent tens of billions of dollars, and we have a budget of around $400 million. This is not the Olympics - it’s the Commonwealth,” the official said.