Exclusive: Malaysian chief joins growing band blaming Hooper
04 October 2010
By Tom Degun in New Delhi
October 4 – Another leading figure has joined the growing band of people pointing the finger at Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) chief executive Mike Hooper over the disastrous build-up to Delhi 2010. Sieh Kok Chi, secretary general of the Commonwealth Games Association of Malaysia/Olympic Council of Malaysia, told insidethegames that recent criticism of the CGF is completely warranted.
He said: "The General Assembly decided not to find fault but to allow the Games to end before carrying out a detailed post mortem on what went wrong.
"This was a correct decision as it is important for the athletes that the Games be concluded successfully.
"On the other hand, many of the delegates and I strongly believe Mike Hooper should not be permitted to get away with such poor coordination.
"Having spent almost three years in Delhi receiving generous expenses, he has nothing to show for it except to blame the Organising Committee.
"Frankly, he is only a sports administrator and has no knowledge or experience in project management and coordination.
"The most inappropriate thing he said was that he was not an engineer and hence could not do anything.
"If he was not an engineer and could not do anything, then he should have stepped down and let someone else who is better take over.
"The New Zealand Sports Minister is absolutely correct and fair to apportion some of the blame to Mike Hooper.”
New Zealander Hooper has been vocally attacked by his fellow countrymen in recent weeks with Sports Minister Murray McCully stating he cannot simply distance himself from the problems in the build-up to Delhi, having lived in the city for almost three years.
He added: "There’s going to be a sharing of responsibility."
Barry Maister, secretary general of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, and Mike Stanley, President, have also blamed Hooper for the catastrophic events leading up to Delhi, which included photos of a “filthy" Athletes’ Village being broadcast just days before the Games.
Meanwhile Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi pointedly omitted Hooper in his speech at the Opening Ceremony.
Hooper has continued to lay the blame at the feet of the Organising Committee stating that he gave continual warnings to Kalmadi that progress in organising the Games was well behind schedule.
Contact the writer of this story tom.degun@insidethegames.biz
3 comments:
Chee ! Chee! Chee! Someone said that the build up to the Delhi Commonwealth Games is like an Indian Wedding. Before the big day confusion, raising tempers because things are not right.When the day arrive all turn out well everyone is smiling. Tony you have nothing but praises for the opening ceremony in your Blog.
Dato Sieh is a very experience man being 73, and making comments shows that he is still useful and can be a nuisance too. This justifies that at 73 he still have fire in his belly!
I hope this will vindicate the incident when Tony finds it intolerable to work with some hot shots in the Organising Committee. Paying some white boy generous allowance in Delhi for 3 bloody years and he have nothing to show!
Now they learn their lesson!
Since Kok Chi was an engineer and Secretary of OCM, he should take the post instead of this Hooper chap. There is generous allowance and he can teach the Commonwealth organising committee a thing or two on project manangement. He can also introduce his management style like how he runs OCM. Like screwing thwe Dragon Boat Team from participating in the coming Asian Games.
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