Still some way to go, says Currie

“There has been tremendous improvement in the last few days. We are happy to see that some urgent action has been taken after we’d expressed our concerns. But still some work is needed to be done in many areas like lifts, wi-fi etc. Hope, we will see a fully equipped Village soon,” New Zealand chef de mission Dave Currie said.

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO Mike Hooper too agreed. “There has been good progress in the last few days, but we need to maintain the urgency. Management of resources has still been a problem and probably we still don’t have enough resources. But hopefully, we will see a difference,” Hooper said.

“There has been significant improvement in the Village cleaning process. As it is a massive property, a lot of work is still needed to be done. But we are happy with the on-going work,” Perry Crosswhite, Australia’s chef de mission, added.

The residential blocks of Indian squad, towers 27, 28 and 29, were open to media on Saturday and they looked a lot cleaner than earlier.

“They are still doing a lot of cleaning work in the buildings. We are still settling down in our rooms and waiting for wi-fi in rooms. Hopefully, everything will be settled before the Games begins so that we can concentrate on the game,” Prabodh Tirkey, a hockey team member, said.

Meanwhile, more foreign contingents arrived on Saturday. The largest contingent to land was a 23-member delegation from Trinidad & Tobago, including athletes and officials from aquatics, archery, boxing, gymnastics and squash and a team doctor. Three more team officials from England and Cameroon too arrived.

The others to land were Isle of Man double trap shooter Timothy James Kneale and Guyana’s full bore shooter Mahendra Persaud.