Australia has no plans to withdraw from next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi despite unconfirmed reports that the English team is likely to pull out because of security concerns.
London's Daily Telegraph quoted unnamed Government sources who said England would withdraw its athletes fearing Indian organisers were not equipped to deal with the threat of terrorism.
Those claims were later denied by the team's manager, Ann Hogbin: ''Despite having been given extensive briefings from relevant authorities, we have not received any indication that we should not participate in the Games.''
Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite said Australia would be at the Games with a full-strength team and that security in Delhi had improved.
''Our plans have not changed as far as we are concerned. We are on track to go,'' he said.
Mr Crosswhite is also a key member of the committee established by the Commonwealth Games Federation to oversee India's preparations and he has visited the city regularly during the past year.
He received a full security briefing from organisers shortly before Christmas and said he was satisfied the situation was under control.
''It certainly seemed like they had all the right people doing all the right things,'' he said. ''They have put on 8000 new police who will have special training.
''They will have a centralised command structure very similar to what happened in Melbourne and Sydney. They've had organisational problems in the past but they look in control now.''
Australian security consultancy Intelligent Risk - run by Sydney 2000 and Melbourne 2006 veteran Neil Fergus - is the chief security adviser to the Delhi organising committee and has been central in drawing up plans to protect the 8000 athletes from 71 nations expected to compete in October.
Mr Fergus told The Age he believed the report was unfounded. ''It's just not true,'' he said.
The Telegraph report suggests that Britain's Metropolitan Police, which sent a delegation to inspect Delhi's security plans in September, had returned deeply concerned.
But Mr Fergus said the delegation had been largely impressed by the preparations and that he was involved in talks with British law enforcement to ensure the four British teams were kept safe.
''I have received plenty of emails from London in recent weeks,'' he said. ''There has never been a suggestion that they wouldn't be going.''
Indian Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill refused to be drawn on the claims.
''This is such an elliptical report that I don't wish to react. I'd rather say what I want to say directly to the relevant authority in the UK,'' he said.
Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, was more forthright: ''England is happy with the security arrangements in Delhi. Reports of England pulling out are absolutely false.''
A Home Ministry official told The Age that four layers of protective security would surround the Games, along with helicopter-borne snipers, surveillance by the air force and the deployment of anti-terrorist commandos.
Several events have been cancelled or relocated from India since last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the March attack on the touring Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. But Mr Crosswhite said he was not aware of any recent deterioration in the security situation.
TheAge
|
E-mail