England to send athletes to Delhi

LONDON: England has decided to participate in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games following reports from New Delhi that the improved level of arrangements will be in place shortly.

"Our Delhi team are seeing the improved levels of resourcing required to resolve the operational issues.

We'll monitor the situation to ensure the village and stadia are safe," Commonwealth Games England said in a statement.

The England team decided to travel to Delhi after "unanimously" agreeing the decision with its 17 member sports.

England's men hockey team will stay at a holding camp after reaching Delhi early today, before moving into the Games village.

Team captain Barry Middleton told the BBC: "It doesn't matter to us. We knew things were going on in the village.

We've heard it'll be ready and I think we'll be in the village in a few days."

The England statement came a few hours after their Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland counterparts revealed their teams would be travelling to the Indian city as scheduled.

Wales chief Anne Ellis added: "We're satisfied that everything is ready. A week ago it was like a building site, although most of it was cosmetic work, there were serious problems with plumbing and electricity.

"But that wasn't in the village. The food zone has been ready for some time, the international zone has been up and running and our tower block, which we went into last week with our advance party, has been turned round and is now comfortable for our athletes."

In New Delhi yesterday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting with union ministers and others involved in the sporting event.

The meeting came two days after international delegates lambasted the Games Village as "filthy and uninhabitable" and top teams such as Canada, Scotland and New Zealand delayed their departure to the Indian capital.

The first multi-sport international event being held in India since the 1982 Asian Games threatens to become a national embarrassment with several top athletes already pulling out and some more adopting a wait-and-watch policy before taking a final call.