Delhiites root for CW Games

90% respondents happy Games being held; 86% think it will be a success

They are ready to suffer traffic chaos and half of them believe security restrictions will spoil the fun, but even then, a whopping 90 per cent of Delhiites feel happy about the Commonwealth Games 2010 taking place in their city, a survey has revealed.

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Two-thirds of the respondents feel that Delhiites would not abandon their city during the sporting extravaganza scheduled from October 3 to October 14. These findings are part of ‘Are We Ready?’ — an opinion poll on the Commonwealth Games 2010 conducted by Gfk Mode for CNN-IBN.

Those surveyed included 1,002 men and women in the age group of 15 years and above from across Delhi. An overwhelming majority (76 per cent) agrees that the Games have helped improve the infrastructure, especially in East and South Delhi.

But as many as 77 per cent agreed that only certain areas have benefited from the development, while West Delhi has been completely left out. More than 80 per cent supported the Delhi government’s move to remove beggars from the city. Civic authorities’ performance did not evoke any confidence about them meeting deadlines.

The opinions were not only about Delhi but also about sports. Sixty per cent of the respondents said the Indian sportsman has been completely forgotten in the CWG hype.

But this has not hamper their optimism about our players’ performances. To a question, ‘How well do you think the Indian teams will perform in the Games?’, 67 per cent people said “Very well” as against 31 per cent saying “Somewhat well’ and only 2 per cent saying ‘Not at all well.’

More than 70 per cent people (71 per cent) said an emphatic ‘No’ to a question ‘Do you know of any national or international sports personality who would be participating in the Commonwealth Games?’ Of those who knew, 23 per cent said ‘Saina Nehwal’ closely followed by Abhinav Bindra at 22 per cent.

Some other interesting tid bits that tumbled out were about what people would like to watch on television. A whopping 92 per cent of the respondents said they plan to watch CWG on television and of these, 73 per cent said they would prefer watching CWG rather than India–Australia cricket series matches during the same time.

But then, 68 per cent also felt that both sporting events should not happen together. A whopping 86 per cent believe that the Games will be a success.