India's Asian Games bid remains unclear

India's Asian Games bid remains unclear
Kadambari Murali and V Krishnaswamy

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 1: Someone should tell the Indian Olympic Association and the Delhi government that bidding for events like the Asian Games is a serious affair. Not too long back, the IOA president, Suresh Kalmadi, had with great confidence announced he was confident of bringing the 2006 Asian Games to India. That was as recent as the last week of November, 1999. A few months before that, at a grand dinner at his residence, he had announced Mumbai's candidature for the Games.

But if the latest goings-on are to be taken at their face value, Mumbai has been left far behind, and the IOA is hoping for support from the Delhi administration, which incidentally could not remember any papers sent to them from the apex sports body. They did find it -- when The Indian Express called up to ask -- a few days back and a meeting was held on Tuesday to see whether at all the Delhi government could back such a bid, which is likely to cost millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the best IOA can put out is, ``Nocomments''.

The only facts available are: ``India is bidding'' according to one official. What is unsure is which will be the city, Delhi or Mumbai. The next quote: ``Any bid has to be supported by the state government and the Chief Minister's office is sleeping on the file.''

He added, ``Perhaps you can speak to the Chief Minister's office and let us know what is happening with the bid.''

What does the Delhi government have to say ? On Monday, an official said, ``There is some file, we have to look into it.'' They are reminded that the last date for the bid is February 28, to which the reply is, ``Please, call back tomorrow.''

On Tuesday afternoon, official sources finally confirmed that ``Though the paper was still under examination, Delhi would be bidding for the 2006 Asian Games.''

Off the record, one official in the IOA points towards Delhi, while another mentions that Maharashtra government is keen. Mumbai would be sorely lacking in the kind of facilities needed for an Asian Games, and if Pune-- Kalmadi's city -- is also roped in for some events, the facilities there will have to be spruced up a great deal. The state of the stadia in Delhi is not much to speak of either.

As for the facilities in Mumbai, one of officials in the bidding committee, chose to go back 20 years in time, and said, ``Delhi did not have anything ready for the 1982 Games, but we managed it all in such a short time.''

So, according to the IOA, both cities are in running. But will somebody please ask them, if India is in the running ?

The premier bidding cities for the Games are Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Hong Kong backed by mainland China. Doha (Qatar) and Damascus (Syria) are the others in the running, while Jakarta (Indonesia) has officially withdrawn in favour of Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur must surely be the front-runner. For not only did it successfully conduct a superb Commonwealth Games in September 1998 -- many called it the the best-ever in the 68-year history of the Games -- it has one of the finestfacilities in Asia. Comparable to the best in Seoul, Hiroshima or Beijing and Bangkok and certainly better than any of the cities in the current race. The multi-million dollar Bukit Jalil Complex, which was the nerve centre of the Commonwealth Games is one of the finest in the world, and worthy of hosting an Olympics -- something which the Malaysians are hoping to have in 2008.

Kuala Lumpur is also bidding for the 2008 Olympics, as is Bangkok. Further, this year alone, Kuala Lumpur will be hosting nearly a dozen major Asian and world level events.

As for making its bid known, Kuala Lumpur has a well-developed website, which tries to put forward reasons for its candidature. Kuala Lumpur also plans to invite representatives from all 43 member countries of the Olympic Council of Asia, the secretary-general of which is IOA's secretary-general Randhir Singh. The rules of OCA do not restrict bidding cities from inviting member countries' representatives, as is the case now in the International OlympicCommittee.

KL has also solicited suggestions from member countries on which disciplines they would like to see at the Games and they plan to have around 35, like Pusan (South Korea) will in 2002.

Kuala Lumpur, or for that any seriously bidding city, would realise the need for a good PR machinery, which doles out proper and reliable information, rather than spouting, ``No comments,'' when there are less than four weeks for the last date to submit the final bid with the accompanying $ 10,000 cheque.

The host city will be decided at the OCA meeting during the Olympics in Sydney in September.