Saved the best for last

The closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games brought an entertaining end to an otherwise lacklustre and poorly reported event, Anthony Tan writes.

I've just seen the best part of this 19th Commonwealth Games – the closing ceremony.

In this incredibly diverse nation of 1.1 billion people, it was the only time I saw India's greatest selling point – its kaleidoscope of culture and colour, and the people's triumph over adversity – truly depicted for the world to see, as an almost packed stadium of 65,000 wiggled and jiggled to the tunes belted out by Bollywood stars busting their moves and grooves on stage.

If sport is to transcend the game itself, then prior to the closing ceremony and apart from an intriguing seven-minute segment on the history of Indian wrestlers on the ABC's 7.30 Report this week, I saw or heard nothing about its transcendental qualities during the past fortnight.

Why?

Well, for one, virtually every single commentator, well versed in sport they might be, didn't bother to do much research (beyond their Wikipedia-infused guidebook) about Delhi or the Indian subcontinent; an aspect so richly and poetically told in Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, a self-told tale of a convicted Australian bank robber who in July 1980, escaped the maximum security Pentridge prison in broad daylight and fled to India, where he spent the next 10 years.

Speaking of security, fear mongering played no small part in numerous athlete withdrawals before the event, as the aforementioned uninformed banged on about potential bomb threats from militant Islamist group Al-Qaeda and dengue fever usurping the Athletes' Village, which was deemed by ignoramuses as unfit to house such world-class, finely-tuned bods.

Populous and booming it may be, but India, for the most part, is still a Third World nation. And unlike many parts of Australia, diversity, adaptability and a multilingual subconscious are taken for granted.

Let's face it: if Al-Qaeda or whoever wanted to, they could bomb the living daylights out of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during rush hour. As Mark Cavendish, who love or loathe him, almost always speaks his mind, simply said: "We're in India."

"It's not a Western country. I think it's quite ignorant to assume we were going to be in a Western-style country. I've been to India before on holiday – I knew what it was going to be like," Cavendish said.

"I think it's ignorant not to respect the way those countries are; it's how it is. The reason India's got the Commonwealth Games is because it's a developing country, so you can't expect it to be like going to Hong Kong or something."

Cav' and I don't always agree, but on this, we're like twin brothers.

And I'm not alone in my sentiments, it appears.

This from a Sydney Morning Herald reader (where in last Saturday's weekend edition, not one had a good word to say): "The Australian media reporting of the Delhi Games is by and large immature and shallow. The typical daily feed is focused on Australia's medal tally. The other 70 countries and 6,000 competitors are virtually ignored. I wonder what lesson is sent by us not promptly sending home the unsportsmanlike athletes who gave the judges the finger?

"As one who has seen poor competitors training barefoot in Kenya, on schoolyards in Papua New Guinea and swimming in Third World harbours, I believe there are many human-interest stories about such teams and their struggles. But not a word to replace the daily gloating over our medal tally made possible by hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded training."

From another: "The Commonwealth Games is a third-rate contest behind the Olympic Games and world championships. It's a relic from the days of the British Empire and when God was an Englishman.

"Today it's basically an opportunity for some big fish and assorted hangers-on to flap around in a small pond – provided the food and accommodation are five-star, there are no sneaky bugs lurking in the bidets to lay waste to their super-fit bodies, and there are no terrorists about – all at taxpayer's expense."

Australia's near clean-sweep of 14 out of the 16 cycling gold medals on offer was not a surprise. The performances and times were world-class.

The competition, however, for the most part, was not, and as Mike Tomalaris already said, in a number of cases we saw Australians compete against Australians for medals.

Which leaves me questioning the worth of the Delhi Games as a preparatory event before London 2012 (on the track, aren't World Cups and world championships enough and better served?), pondering just where are we in terms of our preparation – and importantly, where our cyclists' performances would rate when, two years from now and in the pressure cooker that is the Olympic Games, how would we fare.