Firing her latest acerbic salvo to a Sydney tabloid, Fraser lent her voice to the mounting chorus of prophets of gloom, urging Australian athletes to withdraw from the Games.
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Australia has its maverick Neil Harvey, grouchy retired Test cricketer, who can always be counted on to provide outrageous quotes and juicy sound bytes to sensation-mongering media persons.
Short of salacious material to shock or titillate your audience?
"Call Bishan or Neil, pronto. They won't let you down", seems to be the mantra for insatiable newshounds ever on the prowl for such delights.
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| Australia swimming legend Dawn Fraser |
Firing her latest acerbic salvo to a Sydney tabloid, Fraser lent her voice to the mounting chorus of prophets of gloom, urging Australian athletes to withdraw from the Games.
"If organisers cannot get a hockey stadium right, how do they prevent another Munich," asked the cantankerous Fraser who, without anything plausible to go by, has already made up her mind about the security, safety, sanitation and the quality of food in New Delhi.
Fraser, the greatest Australian woman swimmer of all time, said (again without substantiation) her greatest fear is that the Games organisers are not equipped to prevent a repeat of the 1972 Munich Olympics bloodbath in which 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists.
"The Indians are telling us that security will be right," Fraser assumed angrily. "But they've also been telling us for months that their stadiums are ready to go too and, quite obviously, they are not.
"So what else are they keeping secret? Where is the food coming from? How is the sanitation? I know Australia has never boycotted the Commonwealth or Olympic Games, but we're simply being told too many lies.
"I would hate to see another Munich but, with things getting worse and worse, I have great concerns. Can they prevent it?"
Dawn Fraser's comments about construction delays (she makes no mention about corruption) are eminently valid.
But, why do I sense a trace of puffed-up arrogance, if not downright contempt, in what the snooty Fraser says without any proof about security, food and sanitation?
Knowing just how bad things are and how much disgrace all the scandalous revelations concerning the Games by our own media have brought upon our nation the world over, we can do without any more toffee-nosed arrogance from disdainful firangis.
Corruption in the affairs of the CWG Organising Committee is nobody's business except that of the Indian people, their government and the IOA.
Am I being overly sensitive in resenting this arrogance and alarmist posturing? Am I out of line in wishing that, although seemingly unlikely ufffd and, despite all their faults, even "sins" ufffd the Games organisers finally make the event the outstanding success they have been promising our nation.
It's happened before, notably at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and the Athens Olympic Games, 2004.
In both cases, it seemed highly unlikely even a month before the opening that the venues and supporting infrastructure would be ready in time. The Cassandras ended up with egg on their faces when both nations came through with flying colours.
Were that to happen in New Delhi, it would be a fitting slap in the face of fear-mongers of the likes of Dawn Fraser who, either deliberately, or foolishly in their craving for publicity, play into the hands of the dark forces that are relentlessly endeavouring to discredit India.
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