Colourful ceremony draws curtains on Delhi CWG

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: A dazzling laser show and a musical extravaganza tonight marked the finale of the Commonwealth Games, the biggest sporting event hosted by India which crowned itself with sporting glory by winning an unprecedented 101 medals. Skies over the national capital lit with multi-colour laser beams and fireworks as part of 160-minute closing ceremony at the Jawarharlal Nehru stadium filled to capacity of 60,000 cheering sports lovers including Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi as well as other sundry VIPs.

The ceremony though was not even close to the spectacle witnessed at the opening ceremony.

As at the grand opening ceremony 12 days ago, all the controversies that had dogged the Games -- corruption, filth, snakes, mismanagement -- were momentarily forgotten because some 5000 athletes from 71 countries had sportingly competed for 826 medals of which India won 101, including 38 gold, its highest ever, to be the second in the tally behind Australia with a total of 177.

Prince Edward, patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation, formally declared the 19th edition closed amid thunderous cheers from the audience.

Reading out the closure statement, the Prince said, "In the name of the Commonwealth Games Federation, I proclaim the XIX Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 closed. "In accordance with tradition I call upon the sportsmen and sportswomen of the Commonwealth to assemble in four years time in Glasgow, Scotland, there to celebrate the XX Commonwealth Games."

The ceremony began with the arrival of dignitaries who included the Prime Minister, the Vice President, UPA chairperson, CGF chief Michael Fennell and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the guest of honour.

The Indian national anthem was played as the packed stand stood up in respect to mark the beginning of the closing ceremony.

Pyros took off from the roof of the stadium giving a delightful sight as countdown in Devanagri script opened up the proceedings with the crowd roaring from the stands.

There was much excitement and euphoria in store when a tribute was paid to the India's sporting spirit, aptly titled Agni, a segment that featured the fiery and passionate tradition of the country's martial arts.

Chants of Agni shloka preceded eight martial art forms, Kalaripayattu, Naga warriors, Thangta, Gatka, Silambam, Akhara, Dhan Patta, Talwar Raas -- that enthralled the audience as skies lit up with dazzling fireworks.

The otherwise vociferous spectators were stunned in silence in an emotional moment of sorts as they bade farewell to the Games 2010.

Kalmadi received the flag before handing it over to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna who in turn gave it to winter.

Scottish performers soon took the centrestage proudly showcasing their country's spirit, culture and heritage in a 10-minute Glasgow segment.

The performers began with a lone piper as the spotlight soon shifted to a giant structure that inflated and the Clyde Arc Bridge with the Armadillo and River Clyde flowing underneath was created, leaving all and sundries mesmerised.

In between, the Games president, Fennell, presented the David Dixon Award Jamaican triple jumper gold medallist Trecia Smith.

Named after the former secretary of the CGF, the award instituted in 2002 is given to the outstanding athlete of each of the Commonwealth Games based on their performance.

In all-praise of Delhi, Games president also said, "Delhi you have delivered a truly exceptional Games. Thank you Delhi," as the 12-day sporting spectacle was declared closed by Prince Edward.

Soon a seven-minute laser show accompanied by heart-thumping music was the order of the day.

A 30-minute segment titled 'Music of Universal Love' featuring renowned Indian singers and musicians mesmerized the crowd in the final leg of the ceremony.

It began with DJs performing with 1000 dancers on five stages of the field in an electrifying atmosphere with a 25 stacks of speakers blaring 500,000 Watts of sound.

Musicians Taufique Qureshi, dhol players Kamal Sabri, Niladri Kumar, Bikram Ghosh, Sivamani and Raghav Sachar performed in the event.

There was also further entertainment from singers Kailash Kher, Zila Khan, Sukhwinder, Ila Arun, Usha Uthup, Shiamak Davar, Shankar Mahadevan, Shubha Mudgal, Sunidhi Chauhan and Sreeram who belted out some Indian chartbursters.

‘Delhi delivered a fantastic Games’

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Finally, some words of appreciation from the Commonwealth Games Federation. After some scathing attacks on the Delhi Commonwealth Games prior to the Opening Ceremony on an unhygienic Games Village, CGF chief Mike Fennell said, “Delhi has delivered a fantastic event.” Even Organising Committee
chairman Suresh Kalmadi applauded all, especially the population of Delhi, for the grand success.

Fennell also said that the athletes were happy with all the efforts Delhi had made to make them feel at home. “The feeling we got is that the athletes are, by and large, happy with all things,” he said. And the events too were complimented. “The competitions went well, and it was a comfortable and satisfactory experience. The venues were of very high standards and some were even exceptional.”

Fennell, for whom security had been of paramount concern, said, “I have the highest praise for the security arrangements, and while it has been too stringent at times, it is better to err on the side of caution.”

Games volunteers also received a special mention. “I also applaud the 22000-strong volunteer force. They have been appreciated across the board, as their enthusiasm, dedication and attention to the people has been exceptional,” Fennell added.

Kalmadi, meanwhile, said “Our primary job was to host the Games and that we have done it with great success.”

India beat Aus by 7 wkts in test cricket

BANGALORE, Oct 13: India completed their first ever series whitewash of Australia as Sachin Tendulkar led them to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over the visitors in the second and final cricket Test in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Tendulkar (53 not out) added a half century to his first innings double ton and capitalised on the foundation laid by debutant Cheteshwar Pujara (72) as India easily surpassed the target of 207 in the final session of the last day.

Tendulkar hit the winning runs, a two, off Nathan Hauritz half-an-hour into the final session to trigger wild celebrations at the Indian camp and among the Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd.

Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 21 and shared 61 runs with Tendulkar from 16 overs for the unbroken fourth wicket.

With the back-to-back victories, having won the first Test at Mohali by a narrow one wicket, India took the two-match series 2-0 though the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had already been in their bag.

With the win in the exciting Test, India strengthened their position at the top of ICC Test rankings while Australia were pushed down to fifth.

For Australia, this was the first time after 1982 that they have been handed a series whitewash by the opposition.

They had lost 0-3 in their 1982 Test tour of Pakistan.

Ricky Ponting will also have to wait for Australia's first Test victory against India under his leadership.

Chasing 207 for a victory in a minimum of 77 overs on a deteriorating track, India lost opener Virender Sehwag (7) cheaply but debutant Pujara and first innings centurion Murali Vijay held the fort admirably by sharing 72 runs from 13 overs for second wicket to take India on victory path.

Later, the two senior most batsmen Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid combined for to take India to victory in the Test dominated by Tendulkar's sixth double hundred and stamp their superiority over Australia.

At tea break, India needed just 22 runs for a win.

Pujara, a prolific scorer in the domestic circuit, and first innings centurion Murali Vijay added 72 runs for the second wicket after early departure of dangerous Sehwag.

Pujara struck the ball fluently and made up for his cheap dismissal in the first innings by sharing a crucial stand of 57 with Tendulkar.

Having been promoted to number three, Pujara batted with a bundle of confidence and every steer, pull and drive was immaculately executed.

Before being bowled by Nathan Hauritz, he hit seven boundaries in his 89-ball stay at the crease.

Vijay was solid and ran for singles to give more strike to his partner Pujara before he was trapped by Shane Watson.

Tendulkar, who walked in when India needed another 118 runs, played some delightful drives and pulls to speed up the run chase.

He smashed Hauritz for two consecutive sixes towards tea break.

Tendulkar reached his 50 with a hard sweep shot dragging the ball from outside the off stump before scoring the winning runs as India surpassed the target in only 45 overs.

In the morning, the Indian bowlers continued their commendable job to bowl Australia out for 223 in 75.2 overs midway into the first session.

The Australians lost three wickets with Zaheer dismissing Mitchell Johnson and Peter George while Sreesanth scalped Hauritz.

Zaheer had a spell of 5.2-1-9-2 while Sreesanth had 5-1-8-1.

The Australian added four more runs to his overnight score of seven.

In the very next over, Sreesanth, who was bowling menacingly, got success for his hard work.

A totally dried up pitch was giving some movements and Sreesanth was able to beat the batsmen since morning time and again.

Sreesanth's full length delivery cut in after pitching on outside the off stump and the ball contacted Ben Hilfenhaus' pads before hitting the stumps.

Zaheer ended the Australian innings with a short ball that was gloved behind by Peter George (0), and Hauritz remained unbeaten on 21.

Boxers, paddlers keep India in hunt for second spot

NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Indian boxers redeemed some reputation by winning all three gold medals they fought for while a fourth gold came the hosts' way in men's table tennis doubles on the penultimate day as a dope scandal rocked their on-field achievements at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Boxers Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) garnered gold medals in the ring to make up some ground for the generally disappointing show of Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar and Jai Bhagwan.

Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha had earlier bagged the men's doubles table tennis gold. These four gold medals kept India alive in the red-hot fight with England for number two spot and looked all set to go to the wire on the concluding day tomorrow.

India, who also won a silver medal and two bronze medals, took their gold medal tally to 36 that put them one rung below England (37) who were occupying the second spot behind Australia (72).

India's overall medal tally read 36-26-34, England had 37-56-45, while Australia were way ahead with 72-49-47.

The hosts are looking ahead to more gold medals from woman shuttler and top seed Saina Nehwal, no 2 doubles pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and their men's hockey team who are taking on mighty Australia, the world and defending champions, tomorrow.

The day opened with the shocking revelation that 20km woman walker Rani Yadav had tested positive for prohibited anabolic agent 19-Norandrosterone to deflate the euphoria surrounding the contingent after yesterday's stellar show in athletics and men's hockey.

Rani, who finished sixth in 1 hour, 42 minutes, 54 seconds in the 20km walk held on October 9 on Central Delhi streets, was provisionally suspended and a hearing was scheduled later in the day.

Even as India were recovering from the dope scandal, England sneaked past them in the medals table to stand second behind Australia.

The pall of gloom surrounding the Indian camp following this unsavoury development lifted a bit when Kamal and Saha clinched the men's pairs table tennis gold. The duo shocked Singapore's Gao Ning and Yang Zi 4-3 in the final.

The victory was also sweet revenge for Kamal whose dreams of defending his singles title were shattered by Zi who had scored a 4-3 semi-final win over the Indian.

The Indian duo had despatched Andrew Baggaley and L Pitchford of England 3-2 in the semi-finals. Kamal would fight it out with compatriot Soumyadeeep Roy for the men's singles bronze medal tomorrow. The latter was beaten 4-0 by Ning in the other semi-final.

In women's doubles, India's Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das lost in the semi-finals and will have to play in the bronze medal play-off tomorrow.

Indian women have already clinched a team silver, while their male counterparts have fetched a bronze in the team events.

Boxer Singh did not have to show his fisticuff powers as his injured Kenyan rival Benson Njangiru failed to show up for the 52kg title bout awarding the gold to the Indian.

Manoj clinched the 64kg gold with a convincing 11-2 win over Bradley Saunders of England before Samota outclassed Tariq Abdul Haqq of Trinidad and Tobago 5-1 in the +91kg category to make it three out of three in boxing.

Indian shooters, who have been the biggest achievers, failed to cull a gold and had to settle for a silver and a bronze on the last day of their campaign.

The silver was claimed by Heena Sidhu in the women's individual 10m air pistol, while 2006 Games hero Samresh Jung disappointed with a bronze in 25m standard pistol.

Heena missed the gold by a whisker as her 481.6 was just 0.3 less then Malaysia's Pei Chin Bibiana. Australia's Dina Aspandiyarova (478.8) bagged the bronze.

The Indian woman shooter had won the gold in the 10m pairs event yesterday with Annu Raj Singh, while Jung clinched the 25m pairs silver with Chandrasekhar Kumar Chaudhary.

'Goldfinger' Jung, who had won seven medals including five gold in the last edition in Melbourne 2006, shot 559 for a disappointing third-place.

Heena's silver, along with Jung's bronze in men's singles 25m standard pistol, compensated for Narang's flop show in men's singles 50m rifle prone.

Narang failed to add to his tally of four gold by falling by the wayside for the second day running in his last event. "The idea was to get maximum number of gold but I was a little bit struggling with prone position," Narang later said.

Indian shooters bade goodbye with 30 medals -- 14 gold, 11 silver and five bronze -- three better than at Melbourne.

India bagged their second bronze of the day in badminton when Kashyap Parupalli beat Chetan Anand 21-15, 21-18 in the men's singles.

The doping shame, often the scourge of India's stints in multi-discipline events, came to light at the customary morning press conference addressed by CGF chief Michael Fennell.

"We have received another positive (dope) result. The notice has been issued to the (Indian) chef de mission (Bhuvneshwar Kalita) at 9 am today," Fennell informed.

"We (CGF) met late last night and served the notice to the chef de mission (Kalita) at 9 am," the CGF chief said. OC secretary-general Lalit Bhanot described the positive dope test returned by the Indian athlete as "unfortunate" and said this shame has happened despite everyone's best effort to avoid it.

India's record gold haul at Commonwealth Games

NEW DELHI, Oct 12: For three years and 11-and-a-half months, we tell ourselves we’re not a sporting nation. Outside of cricket, that is. And then, for two weeks or so, while the Commonwealth Games are on, we are faster, higher, stronger than the best of the rest amongst countries that were once part of the British
Empire.

So what’s so different about these Games? In one word, confidence. It’s visible.
It is there in the two golds for athletics that have come 52 years after Milkha Singh raced to India’s first; in the way the hockey team put internal feuds behind them to give us dreams of a revival; in how Dipika Kumari, the teenage daughter of a Ranchi auto-driver, calmly shot to two golds in archery and in the way in which Gagan Narang walked away with four golds so far.

And it’s there in a once unknown man called Ashish Kumar who won a silver and a bronze in gymnastics and showed us that there’s a whole new world out there.

With two days to go, India have their highest ever gold haul in the Commonwealths. It’s a statistic made even more special because what we’ve seen here are glimpses of a sporting future that isn’t just about India’s glorious past.

India regain second spot with splendid all-round show

NEW DELHI, Oct 10: India produced yet another eye-catching all-round display to scoop up a sackful of medals and surge past England to the second spot in the medals rostrum at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.

The hosts raked up five gold medals and as many silver and bronze medals from wrestling, archery, shooting, athletics and tennis on another very fruitful day of competitions.

Late in the evening the men's hockey squad routed arch-foes Pakistan 7-4 in a do-or-die pool match to enter the semi finals in front of a packed crowd.

Ranchi-born teenage shooter Deepika Kumari set the tone with a gold in the women's individual recurve at the archery range.

Fellow-archer Rahul Banerjee (men's individual recurve), Harpreet Singh (men's 25m centre fire pistol) and world freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar (66kg) followed suit before Somdev Devvarman lived up to his billing as the top seed by winning the men's singles gold.

The silverware provided earlier in the day by Vijay Kumar (centre fire pistol) and freestyle grapplers Anuj Kumar (84kg) and Joginder Kumar (120kg) was boosted in the evening by field athletes Vikas Gowda (men's discus) and Malliakal Prajusha (women's long jump).

The 14 medals bagged on Sunday increased the country's haul to an impressive 29-22-22, three gold medals clear of third-placed England who were second last night.

India were also just one gold medal shy of equalling their best-ever harvest of 30 at the Manchester Games in 2002 when three gold medals were awarded for each weight class, a practice that has been discontinued since.

England tallied 25-45-30 while Australia were lying far ahead in the top spot by grabbing 61 gold, 35 silver and 36 bronze.

The day commenced in splendid fashion with 17-year-old Deepika Kumari stunning 2004 Athens Olympics bronze medallist Alison James Williamson 6-0, by showing amazing precision and steady nerves in windy conditions to win her second recurve gold of the Games. The earlier one was in the team event.

Harpreet Singh clinched the 25m centre fire pistol gold, archer Rahul Banerjee grabbed the men's individual recurve gold and world wrestling champion Sushil Kumar won the 66kg title by destroying all his rivals to make it another memorable day for India.

Vijay Kumar stood second behind Harpreet, freestyle wrestler Anuj Kumar also finished runner-up in men's 84 kg and then discus thrower Gowda, a perennenial underachiever at the international level, and woman long jumper Malliakal Prajusha also secured silver medals.

Trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu secured a bronze while Jayanta Talukdar finished third behind Banerjee in the men's recurve event.

Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi beat compatriots Nirupama Sanjeev and Poojashree Venkatesh to secure the women's doubles bronze in tennis and swell India's medal kitty.

Banerjee's sister Dola finished third in women's recurve and grappler Anil Kumar got the bronze in 55kg freestyle.

Vijender Singh, the pin-up boy of Indian boxing floored his first round rival Elias Nashivela of Namibia with a knock-out punch in under 2 minutes in the 75kg quarter final bout.

Vijender Singh uncorked a left hook early in the bout to score an intimidating knock-out win and assure himself of a second successive Games medal.

But defending champion Akhil Kumar made a shock exit after being beaten by Olympic medalist Bruno Julie of Mauritius in the 56kg quarter finals.

To bring more cheers, Asian silver-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Asian bronze medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) and nine-time national champion Dilbag Singh (69kg) also made the semis and assured the country of a medal.

The four boxers joined Amandeep Singh (49kg) and Suranjoy Singh (52kg), who won their quarterfinal bouts on Saturday, in the last four.

Shooters bag 12th gold for India at Commonwealth Games

NEW DELHI, Oct 7: India's Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar bagged 12th gold for India when they won in the 25 metre pistol pairs of the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

Earlier, India started the day with a bronze medal when the women's team of of Bhagyabati Chanu, Jhano Handah and Gagandeep Kaur compound archery team beat Malaysia.

Later in the day, Indian athletes will vie for a lot of medals at the Delhi Games where women's wrestling makes its debut with events in 48 kg, 55 kg, 63 kg and 72 kg freestyle and Greco-Roman styles.

After having scooped up a bagful of medals, including several golds, the Indian shooters are all set to boost the country's medals kitty further.

Competitions continue in tennis, table tennis, squash and badminton where a lot of Indian interest remains.

Indian is looking up to star boxers Akhil Kumar (56kg), Suranjoy Singh (52kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg), for further medals, along with Amandeep Singh (46-49kg).

The weightlifting arena, also among the most fruitful ones for the country, will see Sudhir Kumar (77kg) flexing his muscles.

All that glitters is gold

NEW DELHI, Oct 6: India's fine run at the Commonwealth Games continued on Wednesday, with the shooters notching up three more gold medals and the wrestlers one more. The lifters too joined the party, bringing home another two golds. In three days of the competition, India had a gold tally of 11, second only to
Australia's 21.

Gagan Narang kicked off the gold rush at the Karni Singh Ranges by beating compatriot Abhinav Bindra to set a world record in the 10 metre air rifle competition.

Narang's T-shirt read: my lucky number is 600. That proved prophetic as he shot a perfect 600 in qualification to equal the world record.

Of the four shooting golds up for grabs, the Indians allowed only one to escape their grasp.

Anisa Sayyed and Rahi Sarnobat bagged gold and silver in the 25m sports pistol, to go with the pairs gold they had won on Tuesday. Omkar Singh rounded things off by winning the 50m free pistol event.

Even the double trap pair of Ronjon Sodhi and Asher Noria who missed the top spot, did so narrowly, taking the silver home.

The weightlifters, who were a shade below expectation on Monday, began their effort to win back honour in grand fashion on Wednesday.

At Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium arena, Renu Bala Chanu and multiple national record holder K Ravi Kumar made it one gold each for the women and men's teams.

Ravi also achieved a Games record in the 69 kg clean and jerk.

On a day when stadiums were packed with Delhiites turning out in droves to back their sporting heroes, the grapplers continued where they had left off on Tuesday at the KD Jadhav Stadium arena.

Although the bar had been set high by their Tuesday sweep, their tally of one gold, one silver and two bronze medals on Wednesday meant that every Indian grappler in the Greco-Roman discipline went home with a medal.

Rajender Kumar totally dominated the 55 kg class, destroying his Pakistani opponent in the final. Manoj Kumar grabbed a silver, while Sunil and Dharmender Dalal had to be content with bronze. The tally from the mat so far — four golds, one silver and two bronze.

With the freestyle events still to come, and lots of shooting in the next few days, the great Indian gold rush is well and truly on.

Commonwealth Games off to a spectacular start

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Prince Charles jointly inaugurated the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi on Sunday evening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the National capital.

The games commenced with President Patil's words: "Let the games begin".

Prior to the formal announcement, Prince Charles, the representative of the Queen, at the ceremony received the Queen's Baton at the Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium, the venue of the opening ceremony.

India's star wrestler Sushil Kumar handed over the Baton to Prince Charles, who then went on to read out the Queen's message.

Prince Charles and President Patil respectively then addressed the people present on the occasion, before making the formal announcement of the beginning of XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi.

To announce the beginning of the Games, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have much pleasure in declaring the nineteenth Commonwealth Games open."

Also present on this occasion were Prime Minister Dr. Manhmohan Singh with his wife Gursharan Kaur.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also gave a brief speech on this occasion.

"From all our countrmen, I convey my warm greetings to each member of this august gathering of Commonwealth sporting fraternity. I invite all our guests who have come from every corner of the world to enjoy our hospitality, to enjoy games, to enjoy the incredible sites and sounds of India," said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

"Millions of people are waiting eagerly to watch this great sporting spectacle unfold," Dr. Singh added.

Earlier, the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was marked by a multicrore cultural extravaganza, dance, music and fireworks.

It was a magnificent opening that offered a glimpse of India's great heritage and tradition through a light, music and dance show, which led to the opening of the 11-day sporting extravaganza.

The opening ceremony started with the sounding of Conch, meant for an auspicious beginning in India.

Noted playback singer Hari Haran sung the 'Suswagatam', as a packed to capacity J.N.Stadium with a capacity of 60,000 spectators, giving with a big applause.

A rupees 40-crore aerostat, added to the magnificient ambience of the stadium, as it offered an additional novelty to the Sunday's show.

Soon, athletes from the 71 nations of the Commonwealth marched in with pride at the stadium.

The hosts of the previous edition of the Games in 2006 Australia, led the march past followed by other countries in alphabetical order.

The current host India was the last in the march past.

Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra led the 619-member Indian contingent as the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.

President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Gursharan Kaur joined everyone in the stadium in giving a standing ovation to the Indian contingent in the march past.

It may be noted that about 6,700 players of 71 countries are participating in the Commonwealth Games this time.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani, Home Minister P.Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna and former President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam were among several other most distinguished who's who of the country present on this occasion.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Union Sports Minister M.S.Gill and Organising Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi were also present.

Prince of Wales, Prince Charles attended the ceremony with his wife Camilla Parker Bowles.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented security arrangement put in place for the Commonwealth Games ceremoney included 100,000 security personnel including 3,000 commandos, and 15 bomb disposal squads.

In addition to that 3,000 close circuit television cameras (CCTVs) have been installed to monitor every activity during the ceremony.

Moreover, the Ministry of Petroleum, ahead of the opening ceremony, announced today to reward any Indian player with Rs.10,00,000 for winning Gold medal, Rs.750,000 for Silver medal, and 500,000 for the Bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games.

Games to be opened by Prince Charles, President together

NEW DELHI/LONDON, Sept 28: In a compromise over the contentious issue of inauguration of Commonwealth Games on Sunday, Prince Charles will declare the Games open while President will say 'let the Games begin'.

Highly placed government sources on Monday said that this compromise has been worked out after arguments between Delhi and London over who would do the honours in the absence of Queen Elizabeth who has decided to skip the Games and instead send Charles as her representative.

The Indian side was keen that Patil should inaugurate the Games since she ranked higher in protocol to the Prince. While the Indians were insisting on the President opening the Games, the office of the Prince said he will read the message from the Queen and end it by "declaring the Games open".

"There is no row. Both The Prince of Wales and the President of India will have a prominent role in the opening ceremony in Delhi. The Queen has asked The Prince of Wales to represent her at the opening of the Commonwealth Games.

"We cannot be specific about the choreography but The Prince will read out the Queen's baton message, ending by declaring the Games open," a statement from the Clarence House read.

The two sides are believed to have reached a compromise under which the Prince will end his statement "declaring the Games open", while the President will say "let the Games begin".

Sources cited the example of the Commonwealth Games held in Malaysia in 1998 where the Queen was represented by a Royal family member and the Malaysian King opened the Games.

Likewise, India, the sources said, feels that since the Queen would not be present here and only the Prince would be representing her, the President should have the honour of opening the Games as she is ahead in protocol.

Charles is attending the Games as a representative of Queen Elizabeth II, the ceremonial head of the Commonwealth who will give the event a miss for the first time in 44 years.

Earlier, a British tabloid quoted some of the officials of the Indian Department of Information as saying that the Indian President would open the Games.

The Queen's Baton Relay has acted as the curtain-raiser to every Games since Cardiff in 1958.

It involves the Baton being sent off by the Queen, then carried through each Commonwealth nation until it is passed back to the Monarch as her message to the athletes is ready out at the opening.

C'wealth Games Village to be ready before athletes arrive: OC

NEW DELHI, Sept 21: Despite the scathing criticism from the CGF chief Michael Fennell who termed Athletes Village "unlivable", the Commonwealth Organising Committee on Tuesday said that the matter was not something for which it should be ashamed of and assured things will be sorted out before the arrival of players.

"We have received the letter from Mr Fennell and he has expressed his concerns on the cleanliness of the Games Village. But it is not such a big issue which we should be ashamed of. This will not affect the Games," OC spokesperson Lalit Bhanot told reporters after the Executive Board meeting.

"We were aware of this issue (cleanliness) and we have already started our work. 70 percent of work on cleaning the residential blocks has been completed, we will complete the remaining in 36 hours," he said.

A concerned Fennell had shot of letter to Cabinet Secretary, saying that the Athletes Village has "shocked" many Commonwealth officials regarding its unhygienic conditions but the organisers said "it was just a matter of difference in perception of cleanliness".

Bhanot insisted that the organisers did not miss any deadline as the earlier target was to complete work before the arrival of athletes.

"We had set the target that all work will be over by 23rd September before the arrival of athletes. It still stands, all work will be completed before arrival of athletes. Only thing left is the deep cleaning of the Village. All cleaning work will be completed before the arrival of the athletes," he said.

"The Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Sports Secretary, Delhi Lt Governor and chief secretary visited the Village. We are getting all the support from the government. All the Games venues are also ready," he said

When asked about the cleanliness of the residential blocks Bhanot said, "Anyway, we have now upgraded the level of cleanliness which should be there according to them. So we are looking into everything and we will deliver the Games. No country has said they are not coming."

Bhanot described a foot-bridge collapsing near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as unfortunate but said it was not related to the Games.

"It was unfortunate that it happened. But it is not related to the Games," he said.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai took stock of the Commonwealth Games security and crowd controlling measures being taken during the event.

The meeting discussed effectiveness of CCTV’s, boom barriers and other security mechanism being installed in the Games village and venues.

Tuesday’s review meeting also decided that the Delhi Police will take over the full responsibility of security of all games venues on Wednesday mid-night.

A four-tier security apparatus is being put in place during the Games.

However, so far there is no specific threat to the Games.