Thyagaraj Sports Complex inaugurated

The Thyagaraj Sports Complex, the venue for the netball competition for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games, was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit here Friday.

Built from scratch at a cost of Rs.300 crore (Rs.3 billion/$65 million), it is the most talked about venue for the Commonwealth Games because of its environment-friendly features. With retractable chairs, disabled-friendly signages and ramps, and folding doors with fire sensors, it is a state-of-the-art venue.

'This is the only one which has been built right from the scratch and it is our first green stadium,' Dikshit said.

One of the greenest sporting venues in the world, the Thyagaraj Sports Complex boasts of glass glazing for insulation, energy saving light fixtures and water conserving plumbing.

Several environment-friendly technologies -- like solar and gas-based power generating systems, rainwater harvesting and an effluent treatment plant -- have been used.

It took three years for the public works department (PWD) to construct the multi-disciplinary stadium spanning an area of 16.5 acre with a seating capacity of 5,000. The stadium also has a practice track for athletics, three tennis clay courts and two grass courts.

Amity students volunteer for CWG 2010

It was a wish come true for all the students of Amity, when Manjushree Roy-Head, Volunteers Programme and Training of the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) visited Amity University to select 150 sports specific, hospitality specific and security specific Volunteers for the "Test Games" preceding the CWG.

Amity will provide over 500 volunteers for the upcoming CWG.

During her interaction with students, Roy outlined the various volunteering options available for students during the CWG, responded to queries and cleared the doubts of the students regarding the volunteer programme.

Describing the CWG as a mega event, wherein over 71 countries and 8,000 athletes will be participating, he said the success of the event would depend largely upon the volunteers and how they conducted themselves.

He assured the volunteer that they would make unparalleled careers for themselves in their life ahead.

Providing vital information regarding the CWG volunteering programmes, Roy said: "The task of organizing the Commonwealth Games is monumental. Various institutions like Amity University, NCC, NSS, and Ministry of Tourism have joined hands with the organizing committee of Commonwealth Games provide volunteers for Commonwealth Games, thereby supporting the organizing committee and building confidence in it for successfully holding CommonwWealth Games in India."

"There are 23 venues and over 40 training venues with 36 functional areas, including hospitality, security and sports in Commonwealth Games, wherein the volunteers can contribute as per their attitude and skills along with the paid staff. There will be four kinds of training that will be imparted to volunteers once they clear all the selection rounds, namely General Training, Role Specific Training, Venue Specific Training and Leadership Training. It is very important for the volunteers to attend the training. It is only after that their reports regarding the performance during the trainings is found satisfactory, students will be confirmed as volunteers," she added.

Motivating the students to give their best during the Common Wealth Games as volunteers, she said, "India is being looked at by the world over. Every volunteer is not just contributing to Organizing Committee but to India. This moment is ours. Every Indian has to own up the games, all those hands coming together will make Common Wealth Games a real success. We are hosting Common Wealth Games because we are capable of doing it and not just for the sake of hosting them."

Australian domination under threat from India

Australia fears its traditional domination of Commonwealth Games is under threat from India, who would use their wrestling might to surge up the medal tally in New Delhi later this year.

Wrestling Australia president John Saul said India has been a traditional wrestling powerhouse and with 14 gold medals up for grabs in the men and women's freestyle category alone, the hosts might eat into Australia's domination of the event scheduled from October 3-14.

"Wrestling is a key part of India's master plan to shoot up the medal count. There's nothing to stop Australia surging ahead at the start of the Games with a heap of medals in the (swimming) pool.

"But they're going to peg us back through wrestling," Saul was quoted as saying.

Apart from freestyle, India would pose strong challenge in the seven Greco-Roman events as well, fears Saul.

"India have introduced (European) techniques through new coaches and they aim to capitalise on that," Saul said.

With 21 wrestling gold on offer, India stood a great chance of restricting Australia's haul, he said.

2018 CWG: Sri Lanka puts in surprise bid

Sri Lanka submitted its bid for 2018 Commonwealth Games surprising the strong competitor Gold Coast, Australia.

Sri Lanka and Australia are only 2 countries bidding for 2018 Commonwealth Games, as Nigeria failed to submit its official bid by 31-Mar.

Sri Lankan town of Hambantota and Gold Coast both have beautiful beaches but that is about the only thing the Gold Coast and its surprise Commonwealth Games competitor Hambantota have in common.

The southern Sri Lankan city unexpectedly entered the bidding to host the 2018 Games after the Nigerian city of Abuja, in the midst of a political crisis, failed to submit a formal nomination by Thursday morning's deadline.

It will now be up to the Commonwealth Games Federation to decide if the Games come to Australia's sixth-largest city or Hambantota, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

A former Sri-Lankan cricketer and Griffith University academic believes human rights injustices will affect the developing country's Commonwealth Games bid.

Griffith Sports College manager Michael Jeh said Hambantota's bid would likely become a political minefield.

He questioned how the tsunami-devastated, poverty-stricken, war-torn region could justify spending billions on sporting infrastructure when residents were still living in squalid refugee camps and illegally entering Australia by boat.

"There will be international questions about human rights issues ... why boat people are coming to Australia and leaving Sri Lanka in their droves if the living conditions are not that bad.

"If I was living in that sort of hardship, you would think they would sort out the refugee situation before taking the luxurious step of hosting the Commonwealth Games."

Mr Jeh said it would be wildly ambitious for Hambantota to believe facilities could be constructed to host the event in eight years.

"The best analogy to use would be to compare the Coast to Yamba -- a sweet, little, beautiful, sleepy beach town.

"That's seven years to catch up to the Gold Coast and it's taken the Gold Coast 50 years to get where it is."

Mr Jeh said residents had little use for Olympic-sized stadiums and swimming pools and the facilities would likely become a white elephant.

But Brisbane-based Sri Lankan Association past president Hiran Cooray said Sri Lanka would get far greater benefit from hosting the Games than the Coast.

"Sri Lanka is a poor developing country, to get a chance for foreign exchanges to come to them ... it would be a boost," he said.