Australia To Protest CWG Closing Ceremony | CWG Final Day Problem

The Australian contingent for Delhi Commonwealth Games has announced to participate in the ending ceremony only if the organizing committee agrees that the contingent would not have to wait in the tunnel prior making entrance to the grounds. According to the reports, the tunnel where team Australia had to wait in the opening ceremony was described by the side as a “tunnel of hell”.

At the opening ceremony, when the team Australia had to wait before they could enter the grounds, it was Steve Moneghetti, the chef de mission of the Australian side who complained about the sweating heat they had to face in the tunnel in which the contingent had to wait. Pondering upon the reasons regarding why Australian chef de mission went to launching an attack on organizing committee, it was later known that the tunnel in which the Australian side had to wait for more than an hour had a boiling temperature of 40-degree. Hailing from a cold region, it was rather too much for the Australian athletes.

Resenting upon the incident, the Australian chef de mission said that they were treated like cattle. Today, when there is only one day left to the ending ceremony, he said that the Australian officials were prepared to boycott the closing ceremony if their concerns were not addressed properly. He further said that the decision about boycotting the ending ceremony was taken after much consideration, and if the organizers would not have assured them for not repeating the incident, the boycott would be certain.

While talking to the media, chef de mission said that hopefully the issue would be resolved, and Team Australia would be participating in the closing ceremony of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, which are going to be held on Thursday, October 2014.

While discussing about solution for the problem, he said that before entering to the stadium, now the team would wait on the outdoor warm up track. He said that instead of waiting under the tunnel of the hell, or the tunnel of the horror as he described it later on, now the team Australia would be going straight out.

Moneghetti told the media that out of 450 members of the Australian team, just 350 were currently in India. With many people still preparing to leave, he was not sure about the final figure that would be attending the closing ceremony. He further said that just one hour ago he asked the remaining Australian athletes that whether they would be attending the closing ceremony or not and not even a single athlete was ready to say yes. However, he said that he was going to ask the athletes again about their views.