Glitches galore as Guwahati sounds gong
The Pakistan contingent arrives in Guwahati for the South Asian Games. (Source: PTI)
Without a Games Village to house the over-4000 athletes, officials, administrators and technical officials at the 12th South Asian Games which begin on Friday, Guwahati is grappling with an almighty logistical nightmare. Ferrying them to venues from over 80 hotels is a scenario that is giving sleepless nights to organisers, even as they realise that any sort of delay can result in postponement of an event and disrupt the entire day’s schedule.
What will add to the confusion is that a contingent is not staying in one designated hotel but spread across the city. For example, the Pakistan sportspersons – 134 in all – are scattered across eight different hotels. Afghanistan’s much smaller squad of 49 have been accommodated in four different hotels while India which has the largest contingent is in nine different locations, including the campus of a school.
There is no designated athletes’ village for these games. Teams are being put up in different hotels – ranging from budget to three-star. Chef de Missions and top officials of Olympic associations of eight participating nations are better off as they are being hosted at a luxury hotel on the Guwahati-Shillong highway.
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A group of officials from Nepal were not so lucky. They had to spend Thursday night in a function hall of a hotel, which was turned into a dormitory with mattresses and blankets laid out on the floor.
Even before the games begin, there are indications that it won’t be a smooth affair. On Thursday, an ambassador from a participating country was offended when there was no official welcome accorded to him at the airport.
However, it turned out that the diplomat was to arrive on Thursday evening according to the schedule available with the organising committee but arrived in the morning instead.
International guests were not the only ones cribbing on their arrival in Guwahati. A top Indian Olympic Association official was miffed that there was no ‘games vehicle’ at the airport when he arrived.
Teams have also added to the confusion by changing their arrival plans. Sports Authority of India director general Injeti Srinivas had to keep the media waiting for the 4pm press briefing because he was dealing wi‘h at ‘emergency at the Wagah ‘order’. The Pakistan kho-kho team, which was scheduled to fly into Kolkata, instead decided to come by road and were stuck at Wagah. The team is scheduled to play the opening round against Bangladesh on Saturday and only after frantic calls to the home ministry was the team given assurance that they would be able to reach Guwahati on time for the event.
At the media briefing, the director general of SAI who is the Chief Operating Officer of the games, was hung out to dry as no official of the Indian Olympic Association or the South Asian Olympic Council was present to face the ire of the media who were agitated because information regarding the arrival of teams, competition schedule, entry lists and the names of athletes from SAARC countries were unavailable till the eve of the games.
From the time it was announced that Guwahati and Shillong would host the 12th edition of the South Asian Games – delayed by four years – there were questions about how feasible it would be because of constraints of time and resources. The games are being hosted in the run-up to the state elections, and have been turned into a platform to gain political mileage between the sports minister and BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal and the ruling Congress government headed by Tarun Gogoi.
But the situation on the ground is one of chaos. In Guwahati, the organising committee will have to burn midnight oil to even get the basics right.
Accreditation for volunteers is still under process, while most of them are yet to receive discipline-specific training. Volunteer uniforms have arrived at the eleventh hour and are yet to be distributed. In all 25,000 accreditation cards have been issued but there were long queues of people, including stakeholders waiting to collect the”r cards.
“I admit there are hiccups and I am making no excuses. Please bear in mind that the games are being put together in a compressed period of two to three months. Procurement has been an issue and management and delivery has also been an issue. But such a large number of athletes and officials coming from different countries poses its o”n problems,” Srinivas admitted.
Among the many complaints is the red-tape teams have had to encounter on arrival at the airport.
The Bangladesh Olympic Association is unhappy that its contingent had to wait at the airport for over three hours to get through immigration and customs. The Sri Lankan team also had a similar experience but have been a little more acommodating.
“There are teething problems but we must remember that we are not in New Delhi but in Guwahati. Everyone is trying their best to ensure that the games are conducted successfully. The athletes should be able to compete without any glitches during t”e competition,” National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka secretary general Maxwell De Silva said.
However, the irony has been that athletes themselves have been reluctant to participate in the games. With a number of top Indian athletes not keen to disrupt their preparations for the Rio Olympics and travel to Guwahati, the sports ministry has had to issue a missive asking them to participate.
The uncertainty about which of the host nations’ star athletes will make it in time for the opening ceremony on Friday evening has resulted in the flag-bearer for the Indian contingent yet to be decided till Thursday evening.
However, the great hope is that like a big Indian wedding, everything will fall into place at the last minute.
