It is easier covering a sub-junior National championship than the Commonwealth Games, when it is held in Delhi. For, there is hardly any flow of information in the mega event that had been allotted to India seven years ago.
To make matters worse, the Indian media has been stopped from entering the competition and training venues till October 1. This has been done, apparently because the various Venue Media Centres are not ready as yet.
Actually, the media had access initially to the venues before someone realised that the shortcomings could be exposed and decided to nip the trouble in the bud.
Glaring aspect
Interestingly, all the venues had gone through test events. The Media Centres at the venues had been set up during those tests.
Perhaps, they needed expansion, but everything has been considerably messed up subsequently.
Since everyone has been focused on the sole job of cleaning up the toilets in the Games Village over the last few days, the glaring aspect of media indifference has not been noticed so much.
If you thought that the media was an unwanted guest in these Games, you may perhaps have to revise opinion.
For, there is a loophole to let the foreign journalists enter the venues in the pretext that consideration would be made if request was made through the individual Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs).
That apart, the roads have dedicated lanes for the use of the Commonwealth Games family, leading to huge traffic jams all across the Capital. But, quite shockingly the media transport services have also not been started.
Usually, at least one week before any such Games, the transport operations start, with good frequency, ranging from a bus every 30 minutes to an hour to the various venues from the Main Press Centre (MPC).
We need to learn a lesson or two from the Englishmen, who used to run the buses meticulously on time days before the Manchester Games had started in 2002.
That exercise was followed meticulously, even if the occupant of a bus was a solitary journalist, or at times, none at all.
Here, it has been announced that the media transport would start only from October 1, two days before the opening ceremony.
It is common knowledge that like the athletes and the officials, the media also has to go through the drill of visiting the venues to get accustomed to the whole exercise, reach the media tribunes, mixed zone, work areas, and be well versed with the time taken to move from venue to venue, etc.
Opportunity
It is also an opportunity for the drivers of the media buses and the volunteers involved in the exercise to get used to the whole drill. In the Athens Olympics, the drivers lost their way a few times while driving media to competition in far off venues, despite the many drills.
More recently, when shooting trials at the Kadarpur range started for full bore, the media bus from the Organising Committee Headquarters, was moving as usual to the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on the first day, before the alarm bells were rang.
In trying to avoid all mistakes, the organisers have left the media in the lurch.
