'CGF has to a lot answer for shoddy CWG preparations'
More than the Delhi Organising Committee, it is the Commonwealth Games Federation which "has a lot to answer for" over the crisis-hit preparations of the October 3 to 14 event, New Zealand Olympic Secretary General Barry Maister said today.
More than the Delhi Organising Committee, it is the Commonwealth Games Federation which "has a lot to answer for" over the crisis-hit preparations of the October 3 to 14 event, New Zealand Olympic Secretary General Barry Maister said on Sunday.
Maister said the New Zealand delegation was shown model towers during previous visits to Delhi and never given access to the actual residential blocks which were dubbed "filthy and uninhabitable" by international delegates.
"We sent a delegation to the village four months ago and did not see the tower we were going to be in, nor did any other country, nor did the evaluation commission who went to check out the village," Maister was quoted as saying by 'The Associated Press'.
"The CGF has a lot to answer for in that regard. It was their job to ensure the village was ready for habitation."
Maister said New Zealand would have been more actively involved in the preparations had the country's officials known about the actual state of affairs.
"A year ago we stood inside a finished unit and they said 'this is how it is going to be.' We took them at their word," he said.
"Six months later we were again denied access to the rest of the village, but it was under the presumption the CGF would ensure delivery of the games. In retrospect we should have pushed harder early on to see our facilities."
NZOC president Mike Stanley also said the Committee relied on CGF's feedback on the matter.
"(CGF chief executive) Mike Hooper has been based in Delhi for some time to oversee these very things. I don't think we were being naive relying on that sort of information to base our judgements on," Stanley said.
"We had a full expectation resources would be applied to the project to get it right and that hasn't happened. It is the organising committee's responsibility to deliver, and the CGF's responsibility to see jobs are ticked off," he added.