Although it is old news now, I feel like I should write one after the CWG. The games themselves went largely without incident. There was some whining from the media about how they were treated by the organizers. Apparently the games website was mostly down and information was poor to non-existent on event schedules. Some of the Indian players complained about not being able to get tickets for their next of kin. There was some noise about how the women ushers during the medal ceremonies were dressed inappropriately in bridal costume.
Still, considering the state of affairs before the start of the games, things had trended up significantly. Not a peep about about the athletes village once the games started, other than the exceptional food.
For TV junkies like me, the CWG was another landmark - the first broadcast of HD in India. Consumers in India have been conned into buying HD TVs for a few years now with no HD programming in sight. Finally, the programming is here, a bit like how it happened in the US when it started. Discovery and National Geographic have HD channels and they have started showing major sports events on HD as well. I have a Tata Sky HD set top box that cost Rs. 2500 with first year's HD programming thrown in at no additional cost.
The CWG opening ceremony looked rather nice on HD. So did the stadia - they stood up to the scrutiny of the higher resolution camera quite well.
As for India's performance in the games, it was its best ever - which was broadly expected given the host country boost factor. India finished 2nd in the gold-medal tally behind powerhouse Australia, just one medal ahead of England and 3rd in the overall tally. Curiously, England, Scotland and Wales compete as separate countries while they combine as the UK in the Olympics.
Going into the last day, India trailed England by 1 medal, equalized and then took the lead in dramatic fashion behind Saina Nehwal's come-from-behind victory in the Badminton singles finals. The one thing that marred the proceedings on the last day for India was its thrashing at the hands of Australia 8-0 in the men's hockey finals.
There were many firsts for India, a handful of track and field medals including a gold in women's 10000m and an 1-2-3 finish in women's discus.
So that was the good part; once the games ended, we started hearing about how much money the organizers looted and we are back to reality again.
- Balaji
