IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi, in an exclusive chat with espnstar.com, said the security for the CWG are well in place.

By Rajarshi Gupta

"We had many meetings with the Lieutenant Governor, who is responsible for security and the Secretary of the Home Ministry. With every incident, our security has been upgraded."

Kalmadi said the Indian Olympic Association has learmt lessons from the Mumbai and Lahore terror attacks and are on their toes.

"No rift in committee"

"The Lt. Governor was in Beijing to study the security of the Olympics. A fortnight back, the security official of the Commonwealth Games visited New Delhi and gave us his feedback. He will be visiting every six months and we would work on his feedback."

"We also went to Singapore to talk with a few security companies."

On whether the infrastructure being developed for the 2010 Games would be utilised even after the Commonwealth Games, Kalmadi said that was a global problem.

"There has to be a lot of accomodation. We want to make sure the accomodation for the athletes post the Games should be helpful to them."

"It also has to suit the people of the city and the state."

The IOA chief also stuck to his promise of completing the infrastructure by December 31, 2009 except the velodrome, which would be completed by March.

Kalmadi ruled out introducing cricket in the Commonwealth Games.

"No cricket please"

"Cricket is played in just 10 countries while the Olympic Games are played in more than 200 countries across the world. I want the youth of this country to come up in Olympic Games."

The politician-cum-sports administrator reasoned that he had nothing against cricket but wanted to keep the focus on track events.

"Cricket is a national obsession. If we do bring in the cricket, all attention would shift from the other disciplines."

"Of course, cricket would help us generate more revenues but that is not our priority."

Kalmadi sounded happy with the way the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune shaped up, saying the event was technically sound but there are still some lessons to be learnt.

"Pune Games were successfull but..."

"The Games saw great culture and more than 200 countries participated, the highest number of athletes in any Commonealth Youth Games."

However, the suave IOA boss opined there were some problems with the media accredition but attributed that to rains a week before the Games, following which the hitch ups appeared.

Kalmadi also said India's performance in the Beijing Games would encourage athletes to do better in the Delhi Games.

"Look, our youngesters did well in Pune in the Youth Games and that had a lot to do with what they saw some Indians doing in Beijing. I am very hopeful of our athletes doing well in Delhi."

The Indian governement has allocated Rs. 750 crores for the Commonwealth Games, which is higher than the entire Sports Ministry budget.

Meanwhile, Australia have said they would pull out of the Commonwealth Games if their security concerns are not met.