Commonwealth Games organisers are banking on athletes to provide the healing touch after months of negative publicity over New Delhi's poor preparations for the event.

Games anxiety in India after rocky run-up

Commonwealth Games organisers are banking on athletes to provide the healing touch after months of negative publicity over New Delhi's poor preparations for the event.

The build-up for the Games, which will gather 7,000 athletes and team officials for the opening ceremony on October 3, has been marred by controversy and scandals.

Missed deadlines, ballooning costs, allegations of rampant corruption, unsanitory conditions at the athletes' village and security concerns for the 12-day sporting extravaganza have dominated headlines in India and across the world.

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have hindered the last-minute rush to be ready on time, flooding areas near rubble-strewn Games venues and worsening an outbreak of dengue fever across New Delhi.

On Tuesday, Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell demanded immediate action from the Indian government to fix what he called a "seriously compromised" athletes' village.

"Many issues remain unresolved and as such last night (Monday) I wrote to the Indian cabinet secretary, expressing my great concern with the preparedness of the athletes village," he said in a statement.

"Many nations that have already sent their advanced parties to set up within the village have made it abundantly clear that, as of the afternoon of September 20, the Village is seriously compromised."

New Zealand officials, one of the advance delegations already in New Delhi, said that dirty and unhealthy conditions at the village were compromising the entire Games.

Chef de mission Dave Currie said large sections of the village were still not ready with the clock ticking to its official opening on Thursday.

"The reality is that if the village is not ready and athletes can't come, the implications are that it's not going to happen," Currie told New Zealand commercial radio, referring to the Games as a whole.

Security concerns arose after two Taiwanese tourists were shot at by unidentified gunmen outside New Delhi's biggest mosque on Sunday, but officials insisted it was "not Games-related."

Organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, the man at the centre of the storm, said India would have proved the world wrong when the closing ceremony is held on October 14.

"The Games will be judged by athletes, not the media or anyone else," Kalmadi told AFP. "If the sports stars go home smiling, I will be a satisfied man."

Representatives from 71 nations and territories of the former British Empire will descend on the Indian capital to compete in 17 disciplines ranging from aquatics to wrestling -- including lawn bowls and netball.

The absence of some of the Commonwealth's finest has already cast a cloud over proceedings. Sprinters Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, tennis stars Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur, swimmer Stephanie Rice and cyclist Chris Hoy are just some of the big-name absentees.

The competition may not be as intense as at the Olympics, but the Games give smaller nations like Lesotho, Swaziland, Caymen Islands, Maldives, Niue and Kiribati a chance of medal glory.

Attention, however, will continue to focus on the Games' organisation -- with every small slip-up and complaint being gleefully lapped up by the growing number of critics.

Leading the charge against Kalmadi is former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who has attacked the estimated three-billion dollars cost of the Games.

"We were told the Games would help us showcase the true picture of modern India," Aiyar, a senior member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling Congress party, told the Tehelka magazine.

"I must congratulate Kalmadi for having successfully projected the real picture --- an India of corruption and inefficiency."

The never-ending construction chaos, traffic snarls and daily dose of scandals in the media appear to have alienated many of New Delhi's 16 million residents.

A recent Times of India poll reported that 76 percent felt the expense of the Games was unjustified, and 50 percent said preparations had severely disrupted their lives.

Adding to the mess is the government's decision to create special Games lanes on already overcrowded roads to ensure athletes and officials are able to reach venues on time.

Businesses are bracing themselves for major problems with gridlock congestion caused by closed roads and a heavy-handed security operation.

Ticket sales have been slow as some worried residents made plans to flee the city for the Games fortnight to avoid the chaos.

Reflecting the nation's real passion, sports fans are likely to prefer Australia's cricket tour of India. The two Test matches, in Mohali and Bangalore, clash with Games.

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