2010 CWG: An insider’s tale
The scams, scandals and financial bungling that engulfed the build-up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi have at last been comprehensively presented by an idealistic insider who deserted the corporate world to join the murky waters of Indian sports and left deflated, saddened and victimised.
The author H.P. Singh Rishi, worked in Itochu Corporation, Japan, for 27 years. International trading was his profession but sport was his passion. Like many other Indians he hoped that hosting the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi would be change the country’s sporting history.
An obsessive idealist, Rishi, joined the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games despite warnings from friends and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) secretary-general, Raja Randhir Singh.
So this anecdotal book is not just an exposure of OC activities but simultaneously describes the loss of idealism and passion that overtook the author when he joined this organisation on July 27, 2009 till he quit 15 months later. The most heart-wrenching anecdote is when his teenaged daughter told her friend’s mother that Rishi still worked with Itochu as she did not want that her father’s name to be associated with a tainted organisation.
It is an ambitious book, with a confluence of ideas on what not to do with sports administration. Rishi shows how decisions were deliberately delayed (of the 480 contracts, 450 were finalised in about eight months) to favour tenders with vested interests.
The failure of marketing of the Commonwealth Games is well documented. The budgets were massive, the Organising Committee of the CWG Delhi 2010 got Rs 2,000 crore, the Delhi Government, NDMC, MCD and PWD were sanctioned Rs 35,000 crores and Ministry of Urban Development Rs 15,000 crores.
The book reveals the scams involved in spending such money like the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) and Timing, Scoring and Result Equipment (TSR) and several other rip offs.
The book is not all doom and gloom. Rishi lauds the work of many lesser known individuals who worked tirelessly like Jarnail Singh, CEO of CWG, Mrinalini Kaura, Jt. Director General, Protocol and several other committed project officers. The tone is one of despair not anger. So several tainted officials are referred to as “Mr Charged” or “Mr Bragadacio”. A careful reading of this delightful, racy narrative and you can guess their identities.
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