New Delhi Commonwealth Games organisers have assured the event will be subject to tight security after a London newspaper reported there was “virtually no chance” England will send its team next year.
“Providing security and a safe and secure environment for the athletes, visiting officials and tourists for the Commonwealth Games 2010 would be top priority for the Indian Government, Delhi administration and the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games,” Suresh Kalmadi, head of the 2010 organising committee said in a statement yesterday.
Kalmadi’s comments came hours after England’s Commonwealth Games officials told The Associated Press they have received no security warnings to indicate the team must withdraw from the New Delhi event next year because its athletes could be targeted by terrorists.
England general team manager Ann Hogbin denied a front page report in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Telegraph that claimed there was “virtually no chance” an England team would be sent.
An online version of the report quoted unnamed political sources as saying that the formal pullout would be announced in the new year because safety could not be guaranteed.
Kalmadi said that security plans for the games, scheduled for 3-14 October next year, had already been discussed with India’s home ministry and all the Commonwealth games associations “were satisfied with the security arrangements outlined for the games.”
Security for the games has been under scrutiny since last year’s terrorist strikes in Mumbai and the March attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team in neighboring Pakistan.
Safety concerns and lax security were cited this year when England’s badminton team pulled out of the world championships in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, and Australia refused to play a Davis Cup match in Chennai.
The Commonwealth Games are set to be the biggest multiple-sport event staged in India since the 1982 Asian Games. It is expected to feature more than 8,000 athletes and officials from 71 nations and territories which comprised or were linked to the former British empire.