The Opening Ceremony. D-Day for Delhi.

Sunday 3rd October was "make or break" day for India, the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, If it went wrong here, it would spell disaster for the nation so desperate for the Games to be a success. I dreaded to think about the scale of the global media backlash or of the number of sackings that would be made should it all go down the pan. We didn't get tickets to the event so did the next best thing, grabbed our wallets, invaded Connaught Place, sat ourselves down at a bar and watched it all on the big screen.

As opening ceremonies go, It was...well, the same as any other. A smorgasbord of entertainment, culture and history ranging from the old, traditional folk music and arts to the modern celebrities of Bollywood and the Indian popular music scene. Obviously, the Slumdog Millionaire hit sensation "Jai Ho" made it's eagerly anticipated appearance, much to the delights of the British contingent surrounding me. Someone less delightful on the other hand was head of the Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, who we had met a fortnight before, shortly after our arrival to Delhi. On that occasion he spoke to our group for two minutes after making us wait an hour, surrounded by his 'yes men' and was, we felt, extremely dismissive and uninterested. In short it was merely a great photo oppourtunity for a man with the combined popularity of Sepp Blatter and Raymond Domenech. His opening speech was met with a chorus of boo's and cheers, both from within the stadium and the bar.

The parade of the participating countries was interesting. Besides the obvious uproar for the Indian and English teams (with the token mutter for Wales) the Pakistan team got a surprisingly warm reception, something I must admit, I didn't see coming. Fair play I say. A number of us played a game during the parade. The "Spot the people you spoke to at the Garden Party the other night" game. I made a point of telling everybody I knew the physio of the British Virgin Islands (which was quite funny to watch as they were the nation with the smallest number of competitors at just 2) Guernseys tennis number 1 Patrick Ogier and the Welsh women's hockey team, the goalkeeper of whom I found out lives near where I used to go to school. Very small world. In terms of our game however, It disintegrated after about 15 minutes when a few of the guys found out, if you order chicken burgers, they light it on fire, WHICH WAS COOL!... I'd agree, some of them are easily distracted.

The ceremony marched on, ending in speeches from Prince Charles and President Patil respectively along with the handing over of the Queens baton to light the fire to signal the beginning of the games. The whole country breathed a sigh of relief, the papers claimed it was much better tan Melbourne 4 years ago and the plan went of without a hitch.

I say that, but everybodies favourite events organiser,Mr Kalmadi was heard telling one of his aides that Princess Diana had aged terribly......Oh dear Mr Kalmadi, oh dear.