south asia masala

8/8/2019 South Asia Masala

1/4

South Asia Masaladriving knowledge and debate on South Asia

y homey about

y contributorsy f

eaturesjump to navigationThe Commonwealth Games and New Delhis image management problem August 17, 2010Posted by southasiamasala in India, Stoddart, Brian.Tags: Commonwealth Games, corruption, IndiatrackbackBrian Stoddart

It must now be reckoned that New Delhi (in both its city and seat ofnational government senses)

has a major task in resurrecting the organisational reputation of the Commonwealth Games

(CWG). The sports events themselves will go well enough, despite construction delays and

problems, because they always do: athletes seem to rise above all sorts o f adversity to create

memorable moments. On the widerfront, however, each day brings greater revelations that cast

the Organising Committee (OC) and India as a whole in poor light.

The latest state ofplay is this. Following an audit conducted back in January-February this year,

the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has now declared that at least 60 CWG-related

projects are under scrutiny. The Enforcement Directorate within the Ministry of Revenue has

raised similar concerns, and both of those follow earlier reports of interest by the Central

Vigilance Commission. The Indian media smell corruption, and the hunt is on.

This follows very heated debate within the Lok Sabha where the Congress turned in on itself

under the pressure of publiccriticism about the handling of the Games. Suresh Kalmadi, the

head of the OC and a Pune Congress representative was silent during the debate but it emerges

that he had sent a letter to MPs declaring his innocence in whatever was happening. Two second

line OC members have been dumped as apparent sacrifices and one, T.S. Darbari, has gone

public claiming he is, indeed, simply a scapegoat. V.K. Verma, the Director-General, has

responded by heaping all problems at the doors of the two departed.

The Congress high command has a problem. Former Sports Minister and prominent CWGopponent Mani Shankar Iyer rounded on his colleague MP Kalmadi in the Lok Sabha, and

several other Congress MPs did likewise. Kalmadi, for all the protestations, is now the subject

of public vilification as news of the deals done emerges. There have been hints that Kalmadi

will leave the position, though he denies that if it happened, it would be bad publicity just

ahead of the Games beginning.


2/4

Management is at the heart of this. The thrust of the inquiries is that the OC wasted large

amounts ofpublicfunds in dubious deals where due process seems not to have happened during

allocation. The Queens Baton Relay in the UK is a prime example, as is the awarding of

broadcasting rights. The QBR decision seems to have overlooked a serious conflict of interest

matter in which the successful company was run by a close relative of an OC member who has

since resigned as news of the matter broke. CAG is now suggesting that the OC lost something

like INR 24 crore (perhaps $US6-7 million) in its decision to award broadcast rights to a

company called Fast Track. Now in the context of the entire budget that might not seem a

massive figure and, after all, Salman Khan was paid the same amount to star in a remake

ofTarzan. The problem, however, is the implication that not all was straightforward in the deals.

Deliciously, CAG and the Enforcement Directorate are both now implicating the OC and the

Commonwealth Games Federation itself in the Fast Track deal. The CGF, ofcourse, has been a

constant source of irritation to the OC throughout the countdown to the Games. CGF boss Mike

Fennell and Delhi-based CEO Mike Hooper were prominent in moving that the CGF appoint an

oversight committee because of its concerns with progress, moves Kalmadi opposed bitterly and

successfully. Hooper has been especially unpopular and Kalmadi sought his sacking. Hooper

survived the onslaught, but it is widely believed that he has been sidelined in Delhi doing

relatively little.

Now it seems that the fast tracking of the Fast Track deal was done by the OC on the advice of

Hooper and Fennell, according to CAG. Hooper apparently has said that the advice was given

because ofprevious good experience with Fast Track (hardly a reason to vary tender processes),

but that the decision was entirely the OCs. The most popular game in Delhi presently is Pass

The Parcel!

As part of this, three Australia-connected companies are involved. Two are based in Australia.

Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) is a long-established and successful company with

a good track record. It was hired to do the marketing for Delhi and to find sponsors in return for

what the CAG suggests were extremely high fees and commissions. When news first appeared

on this the OC immediately terminated the contract on the grounds ofnon-performance, a charge

that SMAM denies vigorously. Maxxam has now appeared as the successful Queens Baton

Relay tenderer. Sydney-based and newer than SMAM it has, nevertheless, an impressive set of

sports clients. In India, however, it has been declared an unknown, with the obvious

implication of backdoor deals, none of which have been demonstrated. EKS was brought in to

save the Games when the first brouhaha erupted with the CGF. It is a privatised sports

development group based in Lausanne, a spinoff from the IOC and run by Craig McLatchey,


3/4

former Secretary-General of the Australian Olympic Committee and one of the shrewdest people

in world sport. EKS masterminded the successful Rio Olympic Games bid. Theirfees are high,

but some Australian press sources are suggesting much of the EKS advice in Delhi has been

ignored.

The SMAM issue has provided the moment for which many have waited. It is now being

suggested that SMAM had some kind ofconnection to the World Sports Group that, wait for it,

is in the middle of the uproar about television rights deals and kickbacks in that other soap opera,

the Indian Premier League (IPL). Someone had to tie the two massive sports juggernauts

together somehow. Lalit Modi, the IPL and the Board of Control for Cricket in India must be

grateful that there is now someone else to share the spotlight.

This is clearly bad for the image, not only for the Games but for Indias way ofdoing business.

For example, during the Lok Sabha debate and elsewhere questions were raised about theactivities ofwhat had been appointed as the Oversight Committee for the Games some time ago

when criticism first appeared.. Its Chair was Rahul Gandhi and it had a large membership

including Ratan Tata, Vijay Mallya (ofKingfisherclaim), Anand Mahindra, Jyotiraditna Scindia

and many others. Perhaps not surprisingly, given its large and powerful membership, it seems

never to have met. That, ofcourse, is a direct issue ofgovernance as well as management. Even

so, there are now some calls in India to draft Rahul in to save the Games.

As if all that was not enough, it now may well be that India does not field a hockey team at the

Games, again bec

ause of

governanc

e and management issues. The Government hasf

or sometime sought to limit the time any one person can control a sports federation, and generally better

control the use ofgovernment funds in sport. Several months ago that saw several Congress and

other politicians, including Kalmadi, defy the Government openly. Hockey has had on-going

problems for years and some time ago Hockey India was formed to replace the Indian Hockey

Federation. However, Hockey India refused to observe the Government stipulation that no one

over the age of70 be allowed to hold office. In fact, their new President is 83, the redoubtable

Vidya Stokes of Himachal Pradesh Congress fame who still sits in the legislature there. The

Union Government is refusing to accept that and has asked the International Hockey Federation

to regard the old IHF as the Indian hockey authority. A standoffhas arisen, and because the FIH

has to recognise the body sending a team to the Games, Indias representation is in limbo. Just to

add to that drama, Indian womens hockey has been the subject of some sensational sexual

harassment allegations.

Meanwhile Australia, New Zealand and the UK have voiced further fears about the security

aspects ofthe Games that have been written about so well in South Asia Masala recently.


4/4

south asia masala

Documents