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'We have lost faith in the organising committee'
The Delhi Commonwealth Games organisers' failure to admit to problems with their preparations has seen them lose the faith of competing countries, New Zealand chef de mission Dave Currie said on Thursday.
Currie earlier this week decried the state of the athletes' village for the October 3-14 event and the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) has delayed the athletes' arrival in the Indian capital as authorities scramble to fix problems ranging from filthy rooms to Internet access.
"We have lost faith in the organising committee," Currie told reporters on a conference call from Delhi.
"Every time we raised an issue (we received) 'yes that will be fixed tomorrow', but you know clearly that it won't be fixed tomorrow. And they weren't.
"If they'd said 'yes, there is a problem here', then we would have taken some comfort in that. It's very hard to work with someone if they don't admit there is a problem," he said.
A real mountain to climb
Currie, however, said he had adopted an "optimistic" outlook as to whether the Games would go ahead after Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit had appeared to take charge of fixing the problems.
"She was not happy with what she had seen (at the village) and said there was a lot of work to be done," added Currie, who met with other team chef de missions on Thursday.
"It's the first time (someone) has come in to try and resolve the problems and we have finally got someone who has acknowledged there is a problem, but she has a real mountain to climb.
"But we will wait and see what happens (because) we need to see (on Friday) if there have been any improvements and results from all the issues we have been raising," he added.
'We did not give ourselves any 'drop dead' date'
Currie said New Zealand's individual sports teams were willing to compete at Delhi and that no deadline date had been fixed as to whether they would go or pull out.
"We did not give ourselves any 'drop dead' date, but clearly the fact that we're not occupying the tower or bringing athletes in means that we are not happy," he said.
"By knowing the (opening date is October) third -- and it's not moving -- then at some point logic says that you're either coming or you're not coming. The closer you get to those dates then clearly there is greater pressure on us to make a decision.
"We will keep working until it becomes a ridiculous situation when clearly things are not going to happen and then I guess decisions have to be made," he added.
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