Forget the no-shows

It is too bad that football is not a Commonwealth Games sport. England and perhaps Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland too would have had a chance to enter a team. Given that they have separate football associations,and each is not given to gratuitous cooperation with the other,they have been conspicuously absent from the Summer Olympics,where they enter as a single team,Great Britain. In fact,even the automatic qualification of the hosts at the Olympics didnt exactly clear the path for a local team in London in 2012. As prime minister,Gordon Brown ran headlong into a political controversy for suggesting that a British football team should be enabled in 2012; and FIFA,footballs governing body,had its own views of the matter. The Olympics are not exactly footballs greatest stage,but you have to sympathise with a country of football fans without a team to cheer. But you cant always have the fray of your choice.

Who will the spectators in Delhi cheer next month? There has been understandable disappointment over the no-shows by top athletes like Usain Bolt and Phillips Idowu. But as the air suddenly thickens with consternation about assorted athletes withdrawing,its time to recover some context. The CWG are not unmade by the athletes who do not turn up; they are a unique opportunity for those who do make it to give themselves a leg up the international order. For the Indian contingent,the competition schedule especially fits the bill. It has the disciplines in which our sportspersons need greater international exposure,a shot in the arm that a medal gives them to then take on more keen competition: there are,for instance,23 golds on offer for male shooters,exactly the same as those on offer for male athletes for women,its 13 and 23,respectively. In athletics itself the Indian challenge has fallen some notches since its glory days at the Asian Games. The CWG experience on homeground will therefore be valuable.

Other contingents too will place the Delhi events in their larger strategy. This kind of event is the crucible for new heroes,not a benefit for established ones. Enjoy it on those terms.