New Zealand OC bides time on CWG participation, PM hints Kiwis will go

The NZOC will receive a report from its President Mike Stanley and secretary general Barry Maister on Delhi's preparedness today after the duo's arrival from the Indian capital yesterday.

National team manager Dave Currie said attempts to ensure that the facilities were up to the mark was "like trying to stop the Titanic" after New Zealand delayed the travel plans of their athletes by two days to give the beleaguered organisers time to spruce up the Games Village, which has been lambasted as "filthy and uninhabitable".

However, Key hinted that a pullout may not happen."If we are likely to not send our team then it'll be because a large number of like-minded countries form the same view," he said.

Key, in fact, went on to assert that had he been an athlete he would have definitely gone to Delhi."Yeah, if I could pick my own sport, yeah I would go," he told 'New Zealand Press Association'.

"It's heart-breaking for them (the athletes) if they can't go," he added.
Asked about NZOC's continuing indecision on the matter, Key said the body is entitled to the time it is taking.

"Obviously the Olympic Committee feels that they need a bit more time before they can make a final call on that."Meanwhile, Currie said the next 24 hours would be crucial to New Zealand's final decision but he was "more optimistic" than before after the central government in India got involved.

"We've been pushing extremely hard and it was with some reluctance that we went as public as we did a few days ago, but that was really out of sheer frustration," he told 'Radio New Zealand'.

"Our responsibility is to ensure their is a safe, secure environment for athletes to arrive in but we want the games to go ahead as do athletes who have trained for a long time.
"We weren't making the progress we needed to but at an ambassadorial level we and other countries have been speaking to the Indian government and it appears at the 11th hour they have taken note of that," he added.

Currie said New Zealand's participation would hinge on India's ability over the next one day to ensure "the completion of all the things that need to be completed."