CGF not to be blamed for missed deadlines: Hooper

Hooper said the developers of the venues did not hand them over to the OC on time and this has led to the current crisis.

“We’re at the hands and the mercy of,effectively,the government of India,the Delhi government,the agencies responsible for delivery of the venues. They consistently failed to meet deadlines,” he said.

“Now,we were very active,very strong in pushing for this to be done. The actual venues were not handed over effectively – and I say handed over from the point of view of getting venue-completion certificates and occupancy certificates,” he added.

Hooper said the organisers did not act despite repeated reminders by the CGF.

“…the very frustrating thing is we have consistently spoken out loudly and clearly,consistent in our reporting:

‘Get these things done. Get these venues delivered. Focus on

the operational delivery of the Games.’

“And unfortunately,we are where we are. Now,we can all

do these post-mortems later,Paul. The reality is right now we

need to focus on getting as much as we can done. It is unfortunate that we had to go as public as we did yet again,” he added.

On Saturday,Fennell had stated that the CGF shared the

blame for Delhi’s under-preparedness.