2010 Commonwealth Games

The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth

Games, were held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010. A total of 6,081
athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21
sports and 272 events. It was the largest international multi-sport event to be
staged in Delhi and India, eclipsing the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982.

The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Stadium, the main stadium of the event. It was the first time that the
Commonwealth Games were held in India and the second time it was held in
Asia after Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998. The official mascot of the Games
was Shera and the official song of the Games, "Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto", was
composed by celebrated Indian musician A.R. Rahman.

Initially, several concerns and controversies surfaced before the start of the
Games. Despite these concerns, all member nations of the Commonwealth of
Nations participated in the event, except Fiji, which is suspended from the
Commonwealth, and Tokelau, which didn't send a team. A widely-praised
opening ceremony helped improve the image of the Games. The concerns
raised during the buildup to the Games proved largely unfounded as most
events progressed smoothly. The final medal tally was led by Australia. The
host nation India gave its strongest performance yet to emerge second, while
England placed third. The day after the conclusion of the Games, the Indian
Government announced the formation of a special investigation committee to
probe the allegations of corruption and mismanagement that had marred the
buildup to the Games.
Bidding

The two principal bids for the 2010 Commonwealth Games were from Delhi,
India and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A ballot of members was held in
November 2003 at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly in
Montego Bay, Jamaica. Delhi bid won by a margin of 46 votes to 22,
confirming India's first successful bid for the Games. The bid was Canada's
attempt to hold the games for the fifth time. India's bid motto was New
Frontiers and Friendships.

India shifted the balance in its favour in the second round of voting with a
promise that it would provide US$100,000 to each participating country, along
with air tickets, boarding, lodging and transport. The successful 2003 Afro-
Asian Games held in Hyderabad was also seen as having showed India has the
resources, infrastructure and technical know-how to stage a big sporting event.
India also thanked Latif Butt, former vice president of the Olympic Council of
Asia, for his support in the winning bid, by saying, "You played a vital role in
the Commonwealth Games 2010 being allotted to India. Such actions are
worthy of emulation by all concerned in Pakistan and India. I have no doubt
that if both sides continue to live by such ideals, one day, sooner than later our
generations to come will reap the benefits of and be grateful to those making
such contributions. You would certainly be such person." The Indian
government stated that it would underwrite the total cost of the Games.

Organisation

Organising committee
The organisation of CWG 2010 was beset by delays: in January 2010, the
Indian Olympic Association vice-chairman Raja Randhir Singh expressed
concern that Delhi was not up to speed in forming and organising its games
committee and, following a 2009 Indian Government report showing two thirds
of venues were behind schedule, Commonwealth Games Federation president
Mike Fennell stated that the slow progress of preparations represented a serious
risk to the event. Singh also called for a revamp of the games' organising
committees: Jarnail Singh, a former Secretary of the Government of India, was
appointed as the Chief Executive Officer and Indian Olympic Association
president Suresh Kalmadi was appointed as head of the committee. In spite of
delays and the corruption cases levied on the organisors, commentators stated
that they were confident that India will successfully host the games and do so
on time.

At the launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay in October 2009, the Business Club
of India (BCI) was formed through the partnership of the organising
committee, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The BCI was formed to
both market the Games and promote Indian business interests internationally.

Costs

The initial total budget estimated by Indian Olympic Association in 2003 for
hosting the Games was Indian rupee 16.2 billion (US$364.5 million) but
escalated official total budget estimation in 2010 became Indian rupee 115 bn
($2.6 B), which excludes non-sports-related infrastructure development in the
city such as airports, city beautification and roads. Business Today magazine
estimated that the Games cost Indian rupee 300 bn ($6.8 bn). The 2010
Commonwealth Games are the most expensive Gaming event ever.

Transport

Delhi a four-lane flyway, 2.2 km stretch from Lodhi Road to trans-Yamuna,

linking the Games Village to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadiumwas constructed
which reduced the travelling time between the village and the Stadium to six
minutes.

In response to concerns over the large number of trains that pass by the Delhi
metropolitan region daily, construction of road under-bridges and over-bridges
along railway lines have been completed. To expand road infrastructure,
flyovers, cloverleaf flyovers, and bridges were built to improve links for the
Games and city in general. Road-widening projects have begun with an
emphasis being placed on expanding national highways. To improve traffic
flow on existing roads, plans are underway to make both the inner and outer
Ring roads signal free.

To support its commitment to mass transport, nine corridors have been

identified and are being constructed as High Capacity Bus Systems (for
example, one from Ambedkar Nagar to Red Fort). Six of these corridors are
expected to be operational in 2010. Additionally, The Delhi Metro had been
expanded to accommodate more people and boost the use of public transport
during the 2010 games. The metro has extended to Gurgaon and the Noida
area. For this large increase in the size of the network, Delhi Metro had
deployed 14 tunnel boring machines.
Indira Gandhi International Airport is being modernised, expanded, and
upgraded. Costing nearly $1.95 billion, Terminal 3 has improved airport
passenger capacity to more than 37 million passengers a year by 2010. A new
runway has been constructed, allowing for more than 75 flights an hour. At
more than 4400 metres long, it will be one of Asia's longest.

The airport has been connected to the city via a six-lane expressway (Delhi–
Gurgaon Expressway) and the $580 million Delhi Airport Metro Express line.

Green Games

The organisers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the

United Nations Environment Programme to show the intention to host a
"sustainable games" and to take the environment into consideration when
constructing and renovating venues. Thyagaraj Stadium is intended to be a key
example of environmentally considered construction.

In opposition to this intention, a number of environmental controversies arose

and the adverse ecological impact of various aspects of the games have been
protested by city residents. City residents filed a public interest petition to the
Supreme Court of India against the felling of 'heritage' trees in the Siri Fort
area to make way for Games facilities. The court appointed architect Charles
Correa to assess the impact and he severely criticised the designs on ecological
grounds. In spite of this, in April 2009 the Supreme Court allowed the
construction on the grounds that "much time had been lost" and "the damage
already caused to the environment could not be undone".
The Commonwealth Games village, located on the flood plains of the Yamuna,
has also been the subject of controversies about the flouting of ecological
norms. After a prolonged legal battle between city residents and the state,
construction was permitted to continue on the basis of an order of the Supreme
Court of India in July 2009, which held that the government had satisfied the
requirements of "due process of the law" by issuing public notice of its
intention to begin construction work in September 1999 (a date four years prior
to the acceptance of Delhi's bid for the games).

Other preparation

In preparation for an influx of English-speaking tourists for the Games, the

Delhi government is implementing a program to teach English, and the
necessary skills for serving tourists, to key workers—such as cab drivers,
security workers, waiters, porters, and service staff. In the two years prior to
the Games 2,000 drivers were taught English. The program aims to teach 1,000
people English per month in the hope of reaching all key workers by March
2010. In addition to Delhi, the Indian Government plans to expand the program
to teach people in local tourist destinations in other parts of India.

To prepare for the energy-usage spike during the Games and to end chronic
power cuts in Delhi, the government is undertaking a large power-production
initiative to increase power production to 7,000 MW (from the current 4,500
MW). To achieve this goal, the government plans to streamline the power
distribution process, direct additional energy to Delhi, and construct new power
plants. In fact, the government has promised that by the end of 2010, Delhi will
have a surplus of power.
In addition to physical preparation, India will offer free accommodation for all
athletes at the Games Village, as well as free transport and other benefits, such
as a free trip to the famed Taj Mahal and a reserved lane for participants on
selected highways. The Games Village will house over 8,000 athletes and
officials for the Games. Indian states will train state police forces to handle
tourist-related issues and deploy them prior to the Games. A large-scale
construction and "beautification" project has resulted in the demolition of
hundreds of homes and the displacement of city dwellers—at least 100,000 of
New Delhi’s 160,000 homeless people have removed from shelters, some of
which have been demolished. Bamboo screens have been erected around city
slums to separate visitors from the sights of the slums, a practice which human
rights campaigners have deemed dishonest and immoral.

The Delhi High Court is set to implement a series of "mobile courts" to be

dispatched throughout Delhi to relocate migrant beggars from Delhi streets.
The mobile courts would consider each beggar on a case-by-case basis to
determine whether the beggar should be sent back to his/her state of residence,
or be permitted to remain in government-shelters.

Symbols

Mascot

The official mascot for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is Shera, an

anthropomorphised tiger.[38] His name comes from "Sher", a hindi word
meaning tiger (Hindi "Bagh" means tiger. However, Sher is colloquially used
for both lion and tiger). The logo and the look for the games were designed by
Idiom Design and Consulting.There is one song for Shera also composed by
the popular composer of INDIA the song contains initiative "Shera Shera"

The mascot Shera is visiting many schools across Delhi to create enthusiasm
and interest for the Commonwealth Games being held .

Official song

The official song of the 2010 Commonwealth Games "Jiyo Utho Bado Jeeto"
was composed and performed by the Indian musician A. R. Rahman. The
song's title is based on the slogan of the games, "Come out and play". The song
is penned by Mehboob in Hindi with a sprinkling of English words. It was
released on 28 August 2010. The music video, directed by Bharath Bala was
released on 23 September and featured a shorter version of the song. A. R.
Rahman also gave a live concert for the theme song in Gurgaon , Haryana
which was previewed on various news channels. The official video of the song
has been released on youtube.

Queen's Baton relay

The Queen's Baton Relay began when the baton, which contains Queen
Elizabeth II's message to the athletes, left Buckingham Palace on 29 October
2009. The baton arrived at the 2010 Games opening ceremony on 3 October
2010, after visiting the other 54 nations of the Commonwealth and travelling
throughout India, reaching millions of people to join in the celebrations for the
Games.The baton arrived in India on 25 June 2010 through the Wagah Border
crossing from Pakistan.

The baton was designed by Michael Foley, a graduate of the National Institute
of Design.[42] It is a triangular section of aluminium twisted into a helix shape
and then coated with coloured soils collected from all the regions of India. The
coloured soils are a first for the styling of a Queen's Baton. A jewel-encrusted
box was used to house the Queen's message, which was laser-engraved onto a
miniature 18 carat gold leaf—representative of the ancient Indian 'patras. The
Queen's baton is ergonomically contoured for ease of use. It is 664 millimetres
(26.1 in) high, 34 millimetres (1.3 in) wide at the base, and 86 millimetres (3.4
in) wide at the top and weighs 1,900 grams (67 oz).

The Queen's baton has a number of technological features including:

The ability to capture images and sound

Global positioning system (GPS) technology so the baton's location can be

tracked

Embedded light emitting diodes (LEDs) which will change into the colours of a
country’s flag whilst in that country

A text messaging capability so that people can send messages of

congratulations and encouragement to the baton bearers throughout the relay

Calendar
The official calendar for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is as follows :

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games was held at the
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main stadium of the event, in New Delhi, India.
It began at 7:00 PM (IST) on 3 October 2010 ending at 11:00 PM (IST)
displaying India's varied culture in a plethora of cultural showcases. It was
watched live by a global audience of around three billion.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (representing Queen Elizabeth II as Head of

the Commonwealth) and President of India Pratibha Patil officially declared the
Games open. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the host nation, India,
attended the opening ceremony as well.

A total of three heads of state from outside India attended the opening
ceremony; two from Commonwealth nations and one from a non-
Commonwealth nation. The three head of states are Mohamed Nasheed,
President of the Maldives, Marcus Stephen, President of Nauru and a multiple
Commonwealth gold medallist, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose country
Monaco is not a member of the Commonwealth. As well, Sir Anand
 Satyanand, the Governor General of New Zealand (the first of Indian descent),
attended the ceremony.

Sports

There were events in 21 disciplines across 17 sports for the 2010

Commonwealth Games.

 Aquatics (details)
o Diving
o Swimming
o Synchronised swimming
 Archery (8) (details)
 Athletics (46) (details)
 Badminton (6) (details)
 Boxing (11) (details)

 Cycling (details)
o Road
o Track
 Gymnastics (details)
o Artistic gymnastics
o Rhythmic gymnastics
 Hockey (2) (details)
 Lawn bowls (6) (details)

 Netball (1) (details)

 Rugby sevens (1) (details)
 Shooting (44) (details)
 Squash (5) (details)
 Table tennis (7) (details)
 Tennis (5) (details)
 Weightlifting (15) (details)
 Wrestling (21) (details)
Kabaddi was a demonstration sport at the Games.

Triathlon was excluded from the games as there was no suitable location for
the swimming stage.[citation needed] The organisers have also removed
basketball, but included archery, tennis and wrestling. Cricket, although in
strong demand, did not make a come-back as the Board of Control for Cricket
in India were not keen on a Twenty20 tournament, and the organisers did not
want a one day tournament.

Medal table

Only the top ten nations by medal rank are shown in this medal table. Nations
are ranked first by count of gold medals, then silver medals, then bronze
medals.

     Host nation India

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total

1  Australia 74 55 48 177
2  India 38 27 36 101
3  England 37 60 46 143
4  Canada 26 17 33 76
5  South Africa 12 11 10 33
6  Kenya 12 11 9 32
7  Malaysia 12 10 14 36
8  Singapore 11 11 9 31
9  Nigeria 11 8 14 33
10  Scotland 9 10 7 26
Total 272 274 282 828
Terrorist attack plans

On October 10, 2010, the Indian government received detailed reports from the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaida were
planning to attack a luxury hotel in Delhi and a games venue on October 12 or
13. In response, the Federal Government increased security at Delhi's top eight
hotels and 80 trucks of sand were checked "shovel by shovel" for hidden
bombs and grenades.

Closing ceremony

The games closed on 14th October 2010 in a colourful closing ceremony

featuring both Indian and Scottish performers. The closing ceremony was not
appreciated as much as the opening ceremony. The Commonwealth Games flag
was handed over to representatives of Glasgow, Scotland, which will host the
XX Commonwealth Games in 2014. At the closing ceremony, the President of
the Commonwealth Games Federation declared that Delhi had hosted a "truly
exceptional Games".

Participating nations

There were 71 participating nations at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As Fiji

was suspended from the Commonwealth, it was banned from participating in
the Games. Rwanda fielded a team for the games for the first time after
becoming a Commonwealth member in 2009. Numbers of athletes are shown
in brackets. Tokelau was initially expected to compete, but did not do so.
Venues

Events took place at 12 competition venues. A total of 20 training venues were

used in the Games. Of these 20, one was used for archery; three for aquatics;
two for lawn bowls; two for netball; eight for rugby sevens, including seven
venues within Delhi University; two for shooting; one for squash; two for table
tennis; one for weightlifting, three for wrestling and two for tennis.

The Commonwealth Games Village provided accommodation and training for

athletes of the Games, and was opened from 23 September to 18 October 2010.
It is located along the east bank of the River Yamuna, in proximity to
competition and training venues as well as city landmarks, and is spread over
an area of 63.5 hectares (157 acres). Comprising five main zones—the
Residential Zone, the International Zone, the Training Area, the Main Dining
and the Operational Zone—the Games Village, which is a non-smoking zone,
is universally accessible particularly to accommodate para-sport athletes.

There were three main non-competition venues in the Games, besides the
Commonwealth Games Village (see above); namely the Delhi 2010
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Headquarters (OC CWG Delhi
2010), the Main Media Centre, and the Games Family Hotel, Hotel Ashok.

Concerns and controversies

Several concerns were raised over the preparations of the Games and these
included excessive budget overruns,[131] likelihood of floods in Delhi due to
heavy monsoon rains, infrastructural compromise, poor living conditions at the
Commonwealth Games Village, delays in construction of the main Games'
venues,[132][133] the withdrawal of prominent athletes,[134] widespread
corruption by officials of the Games' Organising Committee[135] and
possibility of a terrorist attack by militants.[136]

The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi was criticized by several prominent

Indian politicians and social activists. One of the outspoken critics of the
Games is Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Indian Minister for Youth Affairs and
Sports. In April 2007, Aiyar commented that the Games are "irrelevant to the
common man" and criticized the Indian government for sanctioning billions of
dollars for the Games even though India requires massive investment in social
development programs.[137] In July 2010, he remarked that he would be
"unhappy if the Commonwealth Games are successful".[138] Miloon Kothari,
leading Indian expert on socio-economic development, questioned the
justification of spending billions of dollars on a 12-day sports event "when
46% of India's children and 55% of women are malnourished".[139]

Concerns raised by Aiyar were echoed by several others in India. Initial

concerns about the 2010 Commonwealth Games included delays in completion
of projects, poor construction standards, corruption by Games' Organising
Committee officials and possibility of a terrorist attack. The Indian media also
alleged that Games' Organising Committee officials were involved in serious
corruption and these allegations included acceptance of bribe during the
process of awarding construction contracts for the Games' venues.[10][140]
The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee on 5 August 2010
suspended T S Darbari (joint director in the organising committee) and Sanjay
Mahendroo (deputy director general in the organising committee) following the
report of the three-member panel which was probing the financial irregularities
related to the Queen's Baton Relay.[141] Organising Committee treasurer Anil
Khanna resigned from the post in the wake of allegations that his son's firm had
secured a contract for laying synthetic courts at a tennis stadium.[142] On
September 23, The Daily Telegraph UK showed photographs taken of child
labour working on the Games sites.[143] There was also multiple cases of
items being rented for the 45 days for more money than it would cost to
actually buy the item.[144] In one such case, 72 golf carts were hired for Indian
rupee4.23 lakh (US$ 9,602.1) each, when they could have been purchased for
Indian rupee1.84 lakh (US$ 4,176.8) each.[144]

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), an apex Government of India anti-

corruption agency, released a report highlighting financial irregularities in up to
fourteen Games projects.[145] As per CVC report, in total 129 works in 71
organisations have been inspected.[146] The preliminary findings include —
complete lack of involvement of the city and the community at large, award of
work contracts at higher prices, poor quality assurance and management, and
award of work contracts to ineligible agencies.[147]

Weeks before the start of the Games, Indian media outlets highlighted the poor
construction standards at several of the main Games venues.[139] In late
September 2010, the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation
remarked that the Games Village were far from completion and needed a "deep
clean" and New Zealand's chef de mission even claimed that the Games might
not take place given the amount of work to be done.[148] The concerns came
to media attention in late September 2010 after media outlets began reporting
on "filthy and unlivable conditions" and taking photos of paan stains and
excrement in living quarters at the games village. Just a day after these
remarks, a footbridge under construction near the Nehru Stadium collapsed,
injuring 27 and seriously injuring five. On 22 September 2010, some tiles at the
wrestling stadium's false ceiling caved in; however, there were no reported
injuries.[149] After the start of the games, a large scoreboard at the rugby
stadium toppled over, though before any competitions had started in the
stadium. Security concerns were highlighted by an Australian TV crew from
the Seven Network who claimed to have walked past security with a suitcase
containing a dummy bomb casing and its detonator on 15 September,[150]
[151][152][153] although the claim was later challenged as being 'bogus' and
dishonest.[154][155] Concerns of a terrorist attack were also raised following a
gun attack that took place outside the Jama Masjid on 19 September 2010.
However, the Indian authorities stated that the shooting was a "one-off
incident".[156]

In the opening ceremony, the chairman of Organising Committee, Suresh

Kalmadi, faced further embarrassment when he was booed by the Indian
spectators at the start of his welcome speech. The crowd atmosphere otherwise
was upbeat, especially when they offered a warm applause to the neighboring
Pakistan squad despite the tense relations between India and Pakistan.[157]

More than a dozen athletes from Australia and England, mainly swimmers, fell
ill in the initial days of the swimming competitions. Early suspicions rested on
the quality of water in the swimming pools of the SPM Complex, but other
competing teams, including South Africa, reported no such illness.[158] Daily
water quality tests were being carried out on the water of the pools, as
mandated by the event standards. Additional tests were ordered after news of
the illnesses, but they also did not find anything amiss. The Australian team's
chief doctor, Peter Harcourt, ruled that the "chances of the [Delhi] pool being
the cause of the problem is very remote" and praised the hygiene and food
quality in the Delhi Games Village.[159] He suggested that it could be a
common case of Traveler's diarrhea (locally called Delhi belly), or the
Australian swimmers could have contracted the stomach virus during their
training camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[159] English Olympic and
Commonwealth gold-medalist swimmer Rebecca Adlington said that the water
quality was absolutely fine.[160]

In another incident, three Ugandan officials were injured when the car they
were travelling in hit a security wheel stopper at the Games village.[161] The
chairman of the Games' Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, apologized to
the Ugandan High Commissioner to India for the freak car accident.[162]

The negative pre-event publicity and heavy security presence played in part in
low spectator attendance during the initial events. However the numbers picked
up as the Games progressed.