Nigeria Content Online

The 19th
Commonwealth Games were declared open on Sunday in a spectacular
ceremony that should help repair the damage to India’s image caused by
a calamitous build-up to the sporting festival.

The preparations
for the $6 billion (3 billion pounds) “friendly games” have been marred
by a series of setbacks to India’s ambition of showing off its soft
power by hosting its biggest sporting event for nearly three decades.

Organisers are
hoping to put all that behind them over the next 11 days of sporting
competition between mostly former British colonies but there were still
boos on Sunday from the crowd for chief Games organiser Suresh Kalmadi.

Britain’s Prince
Charles, who was greeted with chants of “India! India!,” read out a
message from his mother Queen Elizabeth, the head of the Commonwealth,
and India’s President Pratibha Patil was also given a prominent role.

“I am delighted to
declare the Games open,” said the Prince after delivering the message
which had travelled in the Queen’s Baton relay from London on a 190,000
kms journey through the 71 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.

President Patil
then gave her own address, concluding to huge cheers from the 60,000
crowd in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium by saying: “The Commonwealth
Games now really are open, let the Games begin!” Cheers replace jeers
Those cheers were a stark contrast to the jeers that greeted Kalmadi
when he gave his speech but in keeping with a festive and friendly
atmosphere in the stadium, illustrated when the Pakistan team were
given a rousing reception despite the tense relations between the
neighbours.

The huge security operation around the stadium and city involving
some 100,000 police and military personnel was a reminder of the safety
concerns that kept some athletes away from the Games.