Why should I care about CWG?

A week ago I met a bunch of college kids at Oval Maidan in South Mumbai who were indignant as hell. "Everywhere we go, people lose no chance to run down the Games. It's still our country. Where's everyone's national pride?"

I listened with a sympathetic ear and thought, hey, maybe these kids have a point. The Games are happening in Delhi, not Mumbai. I can not name more than five Commonwealth countries, and perhaps six on a particularly bright day. So why make it my personal pet peeve?

Because it is just that. It's personal.

Five years ago, I visited Australia for a six-week journalism programme and opted for homestay accommodation. My 'parents' were this cheerful, pink-cheeked, elderly couple from Geelong and even though I'm far from being a cricket enthusiast, I spoke with great fervour about how alive the game was in our maidans, our bylanes and in our stadia.

My homestay 'dad' took us to the Melbourne Cricket ground and I remembered having to pry my jaw off the floor while I walked through. There was Red Rooster chicken available on the premises, we had comfortable seats and I remember visiting the loo, and not having to screw up my nose while I went about my business.

Keen now to visit India, he planned a trip to Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai for the Australia-India test series in 2008, and I played host to him in Mumbai. Unfortunately, his experience of the Indian stadia was not as savoury. The seats in Mumbai were great but those at the Ferozeshah Kotla Maidan in Delhi were broken and not comfortable for a man in his 60s and who was six feet tall.
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I shouldn't have cared. But it felt like I had let him down, and I raged on later about the bureaucracy and corruption of sports management. He smiled, shook his head and said it didn't matter. But it did to me.

And so, when I read about an Arjuna awardee who didn't even get a bed at the CWG venue that was strong enough to hold while he sat down on it, I wonder what chance the tourists have.

This is why I'm thankful that my homestay parents are choosing to remain in Geelong for this one. For at least there they will be able to watch this circus unfold on a television in their home that won't short circuit once they have fired that starter pistol.

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