Delhi has dropped its original plan to bid for the 2016 Olympic Games and instead, the Indian capital would enter the fray to bag the hosting rights for the 2020 edition of the sporting extravaganza.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is yet to recover from Delhi’s recent defeat to Incheon to host the 2014 Asian Games and the setback prompted the IOA top brass to go slow and bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.
The second decade of the century promises to be hectic for Indian sports. Delhi will host the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and India will co-host the cricket World Cup cricket in 2011, along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
IOA President Suresh Kalmadi said
We will start our preparations as soon as the 2010 Commonwealth Games are over. Delhi will bid for 2020.
We thought of bidding for the 2016 Olympics because we already have the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and were planning to host the 2014 Asian Games. So by 2016 we could have had an Olympics for free, since by then infrastructure would have been in place.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge also had the same advice for IOA.
Rogge said
I think you have great potential based on the general conditions of your country’s progress, which will definitely also evolve in a positive way at the time when the Games are awarded in 2013.
We have a lot of expectations from India and we in the IOC think that India have great potential in sports. You have six years to prepare an impeccable bid. You have to unite for it.
