XIX Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games' Preparation Sportspersons' nightmare and middlemen's delight: Prof. V.K. Malhotra The preparations for Delhi Commonwealth Games are fast turning out to be middlemen's delight and sportspersons nightmare. Senior Vice-President of the IOA, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra said reports mentioning that the Commonwealth Games would cost the state exchequer a staggering $2 billion were mind blowing and the Games were meant to showcase the brilliance of the sportspersons seemed to have become hostage to the big construction companies, builders, hoteliers and the middlemen. Prof. Malhotra, who is also the president of the Archery Association of India (AAI), was of the view that in this whole mad scramble in which land was being given to builders free or at throw away prices, project were handed over to construction companies through dubious middlemen. The real actors - sportspersons have been totally forgotten. In the Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002 and the Busan Asian Games 2002, Government gave Rs. 20 lakh to each Indian Gold Medal winner but in Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 and Doha Asian Games 2006 prize money to Gold Medal Winner was reduced to Rs.10 lakh only. In spite of protests by sportspersons, sports federations and the IOA, the Government did no budge and medal winners received only the reduced amount. The Government deprived our performing sportspersons of about Rs. 3 crore. The tragedy of sports was that the VI Pay Commission enhanced the pay scales of employees considerably but prize money of medal winners in international competition instead of being increased were reduced or remained constant. The Government has announced prize money for the Commonwealth Games including 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games as Rs. 10 lakh for Gold winners, Rs. 5 lakh for Silver winner and Rs 3 lakh for Bronze medallists, which is 50% of what our medallists got for the Manchester Games’ performance! The Senior Vice-President of the IOA reminded the concerned authority that the Olympic Games held in recent past at Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Beijing and Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur, Manchester and Melbourne were being remembered for the brilliant showing of the our athletes besides the infrastructure. Beijing Olympics is talked about because the Chinese topped the medal tally and not because of Bird's nest (athletic stadium) or for its swimming pool. India's medal tally at Manchester was 70 (30 Gold, 21 Silver and 19 Bronze) and at Melbourne the Medal tally came down to 50 Medals (22,17,21). If we had to finish fourth again then what is the use of spending so much money, he asked. Prof. Malhotra said it was ridiculous to spent Rs. 700 Crore on the renovation of Connaught Place and put it into Commonwealth Games account and spend hundreds of crores on wasteful projects but reduce the prize money due to players. "The billions of rupees spent on to complete the infrastructure in break-neck speed is the result of myopic outlook and wrong policies adopted by the Government, which, slept over these projects for nearly six years and suddenly woke up to realise that if the Games flopped, India would become a laughing stock in the International Sporting arena," he said. "Why should ordinary tax payer suffer for the Government’s recklessness?" The Government was following penny wise pound foolish policy. It should remember that Delhi 2010 would be remembered for the medals India won and not for construction. "I, therefore, urge the Government to enhance the prize money for the Commonwealth and Asian Games to Rs. 50 lakh for Gold, Rs. 30 lakh for Silver and Rs. 20 lakh for Bronze. I also urge the Government to turn its attention to the preparations of the Indian contingent for the Games, because this is the chance for India to showcase its sporting prowess as China did it in Beijing or Australia did it in Melbourne," the AAI president pointed out.