Chronicles of a Demented Mind

New Delhi to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games
New Delhi pulled out of the 2016 Olympics bid, plan to bid for the 2020 Olympics
New Delhi wants to host a Formula 1 race from 2010

This is brilliant news. It increases tourism, increases the image of the country to the outer world, etc

But, there are a lot of questions to be answered

Is India ready to host such big events?
Can our administration handle the facilities for such big events?
Can our administration guarantee that enough security will be provided for the incoming tourists, players and officials?
Can the administration provide bump-free travel for the tourists at least during these events?
Do we have enough facilities to host an event as big as the Olympics?

Agreed that these events will help our economy grow, etc… But, when I look at all the news around today, it doesn’t really look like our administration can handle such big events. Track back to 1996 World Cup when the crowd in Kolkota stopped a match midway and the match was awarded to SL because the crowd couldn’t be controlled
Then there was a case when a match was cancelled because the pitch was falling apart
There are strikes by doctors, pilots, airport ground staff, etc every few days. Will be the administration be able to provide a backup in case of such contingencies?
It has been proved that the public construction projects have not been of very good quality (like the collapse of the flyover in Hyd and the accidents in the Delhi and Bangalore metro construction sites)
Current sports facilities are pathetic at best. Especially, the accommodation for the sports persons
We do not truly excel in any sport other than cricket, except for a stray champion in a couple of sports
Our non-cricketing sporting champions are treated like normal citizens and sometimes ill-treated too
Indians as a country on the whole does not appreciate any non-cricket sport

Although nothing would be better than hosting such big events, shouldn’t we make sure that the facilities are good enough for our athletes to train and grow before we exhibit our sporting facilities (or the lack of it) to the rest of the world?

Guess its time for the authorities to sit up and take notice of the apathy that occurs in the lower rungs before they start asking the citizens to be more curteous to the visitors of Commonwealth Games