Do the Australian media have Delhi belly? | Thebigtip

The Commonwealth Games are now finally up and running, but Australia's media seem to be focussing on the negative rather than the positive.

We should be highlighting athletes who have gone through rigorous training schedules, constant 4am wake up calls, and putting their lives on hold to achieve their ultimate goal.  Instead we are reporting that everyone in Delhi has to wait hours to gain access to transport, contracting food poisoning while watching the cricket, completely ignoring the games.

The Australian media have shown nothing but disrespect to the athletes and officials over the last few days, comparing the games to a 'school sports carnival', constantly complaining about living conditions, and concentrating on the poor crowd numbers.

The games are a chance for some sports to finally get their time in the sun, track cycling, gymnastics, athletics, swimming and netball don't receive enough media coverage and are often lost in our overexposure of the NRL and AFL.

Crowds have been disappointing to say the least, but ticket prices and enthusiasm shouldn't be compared to the 2006 event held in Melbourne.  Melbournians call themselves the sporting capital of the World and would sell out any event that resembled sport.

The games have produced some great Australian sporting moments through time; we have seen the emergence of the names such as Freeman, Thorpe, O'Neill and Wickham.  Without the games how would our athletes gain experience to compete against the all comers at the Olympics.

The Indian organising committee should have worked alongside cricket officials. Delhi should be showcasing India through their rich history and culture instead only 250km away their national cricket team won a remarkable test match against Australia.  The scheduling of this should never have happened.  The committee should have been working close together with the ICC, and I believe they have missed a golden chance to include Twenty20 in the games, India's national sport.

Officials have wrongly allowed tennis into the games for the first time; you cannot expect to attract a quality field in this sport when other events are running concurrently.  If the games are looking for new sports to include we should be looking at events such as rowing and darts.

Yes Australia will dominate most events, and the withdrawal of some athletes (mainly cycling) due to terrorists threats have beared a large impact on the games.  But as they say 'The show must go on'.  Terrorists cannot dictate where or when sporting events around the world are held.

Australia's gold rush will continue throughout the swimming cycling and gymnastics, but whilst the sports such as netball, hockey, and lawn bowls don’t provide us with many headlines they do have a rich history in the games.  Australian journalists seem to be very narrow minded when it comes to these events and tend to focus on the more popular sports of swimming and athletics.

At the end of the day I believe Australia, England and Canada have a responsibility to the rest of the Commonwealth to send their best teams, but at the same time embracing the smaller nations.  For Countries such as India, Trinidad, Sri Lanka and Malaysia this is their sporting Everest.