Significant changes in CWG progress: Hooper

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) chief executive Mike Hooper said on Thursday there have been “significant changes” in the Delhi Games preparations, which were criticised for being behind schedule as recently as October.

The observation comes as a boost for the Organising Committee (OC) ahead of a crucial three-day Coordination Commission Meeting (COCOM), which begins here on Monday to further review the pace of work.

“During the course of the meeting, we will review the progress across a range of function areas. It’s a long process,” Hooper told The Indian Express. “There have been changes, quite significant changes, since October. We will review all that and submit our detailed report to CGF president Mike Fennell.”

Barely two months ago, after the federation's General Assembly meeting in Delhi, Fennell had slammed the Organising Committee (OC) for Games preparations and announced setting up an Independent Technical Review Committee to monitor the progress. The panel, comprising foreign experts, was earlier said to come into effect post Christmas, but the CGF now appears non-committal about it.

‘Fennell to decide’

“There will be discussions about the panel during COCOM, as to when it will start functioning,” said Hooper, adding that only Mike Fennell, who will be in Delhi for the meeting, would decide on the future course of action.

Meanwhile, the Coordination Commission, chaired by Austin Sealy of Barbados, will have seven members, including Hooper, and the OC says it is better prepared this time around.

“We are confident the commission will return satisfied with the progress we have made in the last six months. We have done a lot since the last COCOM in May,” said OC vice-chairman Randhir Singh.

The last time the commission had visited, it had feared in its report that the Games might fail from an operational perspective should there be not change in the functioning of the Organising Committee.