While Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi reiterated that Commonwealth Games Federation’s chief executive Mike Hooper must be recalled from India, the New Zealander continued to work from the Organising Committee (OC) office and even held discussions with senior IOA officials on Monday.
“I am functioning from the OC headquarters. I have not been told to work from anywhere else,” Hooper told 'The Indian Express'. “Today, I had discussions with A K Mattoo (OC treasurer and IOA vice-president) and A S V Prasad (OC joint director general).”
Mattoo said: “Yes, Hooper came to my office this morning. This is a normal thing. Nothing new about it, nothing secretive about it.”
After CGF president Mike Fennell had snubbed his demand to “repatriate” Hooper, Kalmadi had again said that Hooper’s presence was hampering OC’s day-to-day functioning. He even cited a clause which said the committee didn’t necessarily have to provide the CGF representative a permanent space in its office.
“Clause 30 (f) dealing with Knowledge Transfer and GKMP in the Host City Contract does not provide for the permanent presence of a CGF representative in the Organising Committee office,” Kalmadi said in a statement on Friday.
But Hooper insisted that, as far as he was concerned, it was back to “business as usual”.
“That attack by Kalmadi was personal and most unfortunate, but I am a professional and my reaction to that nonsense had shown that. For me, it’s business as usual again. There is little time and we need to focus on real issues. Let’s not get our attention diverted,” Hooper said.
... contd.
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