COMMONWEALTH

GAMES

-BY
ANUKUL SINGHAL
IX-A
ROLL NO. 5
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY
TRADITIONS
MEMBERS
APPROVED SPORTS
XIX COMMONWEALTH GAMES
 ORGANISING COMMITTEE
COST
 QUEEN’S BATON RELAY
 INTRODUCTION
 The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving
athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. As well as many Olympic
sports, the Games also include some sports that are played mainly in
Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls, rugby sevens and netball. The
Games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which
also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. The host city
is selected from across the Commonwealth, with eighteen cities in seven
countries having hosted it. The event was first held in 1930 under the title of
the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The event was
renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the
British Commonwealth Games in 1970, and gained its current title in 1978.
 HISTORY
 A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire
was first proposed by the Reverend Astley Cooper in 1891 when he wrote an
article in The Times suggesting a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and
Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good
understanding of the British Empire".
 In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in come London to celebrate the
coronation of King George V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire
Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South
Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing,
wrestling, swimming and athletics. In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of
Canada was asked to organise the first ever British Empire Games. These
were held in Hamilton, Canada two years later.
 TRADITIONS
 From 1930 until 1950, the parade of nations was led by a single flag carrying
the Union Flag.
 Since 1958, the Queen's Baton Relay has taken place, in which athletes carry a
baton from Buckingham Palace to the games opening ceremony. This baton has
within it Queen Elizabeth II's message of greeting to the athletes. The baton's final
bearer is usually a famous sporting personage of the host nation.
 All other nations march in English alphabetical order, except that the first nation
marching in the Parade of Athletes is the host nation of the previous games, and the
host nation of the current games marches last. In 2006 countries marched in
alphabetical order in geographical regions.
 Three national flags fly from the stadium on the poles that are used for medal
ceremonies: Previous host nation, Current host nation, Next host nation.
 The military is more active in the Opening Ceremony than in the Olympic Games. This
is to honour the British Military traditions of the Old Empire
 MEMBERS
There are currently 54 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and
71 teams participate in the Games. The four Home Nations of the United
Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – send
separate teams to the Commonwealth Games, and individual teams are
also sent from the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and
the Isle of Man (unlike at the Olympic Games, where the combined
"Great Britain" team represents all four home nations and the Crown
dependencies). Many of the British overseas territories also send their
own teams.  The Australian external territory of Norfolk Island also
sends its own team, as do the Cook Islands and Niue, two states in free
association with New Zealand. It was reported that Tokelau, another
dependency of New Zealand would be sending a team to
the 2010 Games in New Delhi, India. In the end however they did not.
Approved sports
 Aquatics

  Diving
  Swimming
  Synchronized swimming
  Archery 
  Athletics
  Badminton
  Boxing
 Cycling
  Road
  Track
 Gymnastics
  Artistic gymnastics
CONTINUED-:

Lawn bowls
 Netball
 Rugby sevens
 Shooting
 Squash
 Table tennis
 Tennis
 Weightlifting
 Wrestling
 XIX COMMONWEALTH GAMES
 The 2010 Commonwealth Games is the 19thCommonwealth
Games, and the ninth to be held under that name. The Games are being
held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010, the largest multi-sport event
conducted to date in Delhi and India, which hosted the Asian Games in 1951
and 1982. The opening ceremony took place on 3 October at the Jawaharlal
Nehru Stadium, the main stadium of the event. This marks the first time the
Commonwealth Games have been held in India and the second time the event
has been held in Asia.  Initially, several concerns were raised over the
preparations of the Games and these included heavy rains and possibility of
floods in Delhi, infrastructural compromise, poor living conditions at
the Commonwealth Games Village, delays in construction of the main
Games' venues the withdrawal of prominent athletes, and widespread
corruption by officials of the Games' Organizing Committee.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
The organisation 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 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.
 COST
The initial total budget estimated by Indian Olympic
Association in 2003 for hosting the Games was  16.2 billion
(US$364.5 million) but escalated official total budget
estimation in 2010 became  115 bn ($2.6 M), 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  300 bn ($6.8
bn). The 2010 Commonwealth Games are the most expensive
Commonwealth Games ever.
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. 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.
 MASCOT
The official mascot for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is  Shera,
an anthropomorphised tiger. 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.
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".
THANKYOU
-BY
ANUKUL SINGHAL
IX-A
ROLL NO.5