Games people play

The Commonwealth Games may be scheduled for 2010 ? a good four years away. But by the look of it, it has already spurred intense competition.

The Commonwealth Games may be scheduled for 2010 — a good four years away. But by the look of it, it has already spurred intense competition. The two main players in the ring are Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar (who seems torn between this portfolio and the other one close to his heart, the Panchayati Raj Ministry) and the head of the organising committee for the Games, Suresh Kalmadi. They are vying for the championship title, that is, to captain the team of people who’ll be given bouquets (or brickbat) for planning out the mega-event.

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Also in the race are, of course, the Union Urban Development Ministry, the Delhi government, the DDA, the NDMC and the MCD, all of which are meant to be taking care of one aspect of infrastructure development or the other. And what’s hard to spot is any sporting spirit between any of them. The interesting aspect of the game being played out here is that during the qualifying round, all participants were meant to be part of one team. Kingsize egos, of course, are at play.

So, even as the (splintered) team members fight each other over who they take their orders from — or more to the point, who they don’t take orders from — the finishing line is drawing near. With four years to go, and play almost having come to a halt because of much thunder and lightning, the losers will be the real sportspersons descending in Delhi for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.