“The Commonwealth Games are the most redundant and peculiar of sporting events.”

Amid rumours that some of the worlds best athletes, like Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt, will not be competing in Delhi, we recall American Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s reflection on the 2006 event:

Too many people try to put these championships on a par with the World Championships or the Olympics but they are not – never have been, never will be. Just ask the athletes, they know because they have to compete against the best in the world. I think that truth gets lost on the British media, the fans and the athletes themselves because they hardly compete outside of their country. But to have a presence on the international stage you have to compete against the best in the world. When a British – or Australian for that matter – athlete does well, people want to make it like an Olympic or World medal but it is just not the same level.

Will you watch the Commonwealth Games if stars like Usain Bolt are not present? Or is giving smaller nations a chance to take the limelight a good thing?

In an interview with the RCS for the Commonwealth Conversation – England’s Commonwealth Games Badminton Gold medalist - Gail Emms tells us why it’s important that people know more about the Commonwealth.

With Trinidad and Tobago hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the end of November, the Commonwealth Conversation interviewed one of T&T’s biggest sports stars: footballer Dwight Yorke. We asked him for his thoughts on the Commonwealth and what Trinidad and Tobago can teach the world.

As part of the Commonwealth Conversation, Dame Kelly Holmes, President of Commonwealth Games England, talked to the RCS about what the Commonwealth means to her.

Transcript:

What does the Commonwealth mean to you?

The Commonwealth is something that has been part of my journey as an athlete for very many years. We have some very significant things, like the Commonwealth Games, that we participate in, where seventy-one nations come together. And its always been known as the ‘friendly games’; people from different backgrounds, cultures, all uniting for the same purpose, that is to use sport as something that gives you passion, achievement and success.

We asked thousands of people around the world what they thought about the Commonwealth, and the thing that they said most was that they knew the Commonwealth Games. Why do you think that is the part of the Commonwealth that sticks most in people’s hearts?

I think sometimes the Commonwealth isn’t known that much, to the younger generation; we don’t talk about the Commonwealth in a more positive light, we don’t really talk about the history of the Commonwealth, and I think that’s a shame. But, actually, the Commonwealth Games gives that identity, and if we’re trying to inspire young people, sport is a way of engaging young people. Watching something like the Commonwealth Games, they get an understanding of what it is that people from different nations and nationalities are coming together, and if that’s the positive message that we can get across, then the Commonwealth Games is a platform to talk about everything else in the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth heads of government are meeting in a couple of week’s time, in Trinidad, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. If you could tell them to focus on one thing, what would it be?

I think the one thing I would really say to focus on, is that if you’re truly passionate about young people, you have to invest in them.

Muttiah ‘Murali’ Muralitharan is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket history and Sri Lanka’s greatest player of all time. He is also a dedicated humanitarian and philanthropist, serving as a trustee of the Foundation of Goodness, which seeks to help Sri Lanka’s rural poor.

In this exclusive interview for the Commonwealth Conversation, he talks about the power of sport to unite people irrespective of race and religion and what the Commonwealth could do to help Sri Lanka build a better future.

Transcript:

What does the Commonwealth mean to you?

It’s about uniting people and getting together countries; there are so many issues that so many countries have. Sports- wise, we get together through sports, I can remember in Malaysia [the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, 1998], as cricketers we got together as athletes normally do in the Commonwealth Games, cricket was also a part in Malaysia, it happened once, and it was nice.

How does cricket, and sport more generally, unite people from different countries and backgrounds across the Commonwealth?

Cricket is a sport, and sport always unites people because people are interested to see some kind of activities going on in each of the countries, sports can unite like that, and another thing is sport doesn’t have any religion or any caste or anything, it’s all one common thing, winning and losing, and participating, and that makes people happier, makes spectators happier, so that makes us more united than anything else.

As a humanitarian, what do you think international organisations like the Commonwealth can do to help the people of developing countries like Sri Lanka?

Oh, they can do a lot of things, developing countries need a lot, especially in Sri Lanka after the war, the North and East are struggling more through that, and so many issues are there, so they can talk to the leaders of our country and come and help them. There are a lot of houses to build, a lot of people need education, so many things they can do, and that would be the ideal thing for Sri Lanka for the next few years.

53 Commonwealth leaders will be meeting in Trinidad in November for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. If you could tell them to focus on one international issue of importance in the coming years, what would that be?

Mainly poverty, especially for food and for the children and people who can’t afford it, because food- every house needs food, and if people don’t eat properly the mind doesn’t work, and if the mind doesn’t work, so many problems can be created in that environment. So if on food shortages they can concentrate, and mind development will be more, so people will see the easing of their life and everything will go more smoothly in those countries.

Bill Morris discusses the important role of sport in uniting the diverse citizens of the Commonwealth.

He was born in Jamaica and came to Britain as a teenager. He became the first black leader of a British trade union when he was elected General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union in 1992. Today he sits in the House of Lords as a working life peer, and also serves as a non-executive director of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Transcript:

Q: Do you think that cricket, and perhaps sport more generally- rugby union and so on- plays an important role in uniting people who are from very different countries and cultures?

A: Oh yes, indeed so, sport brings people together, people from different faiths and cultures, people who have an opportunity to measure their talent. Sport is an enriching activity and is seen very much in the Commonwealth and we’re all looking forward to the Commonwealth Games in Scotland and from that position there are a lot of lessons to be drawn in the context of the contribution sports can make in bringing people together.

NB: In the interview Bill Morris mentions the next Commonwealth Games will be held in Scotland. He is referring to the “next” Games after Delhi in 2010.

Watch Imran Khan, retired Pakistani cricketer turned politician, talk about the unifying nature of cricket in the Commonwealth.

Q: Do you think sport has an important role to play in the Commonwealth?

Khan: It already has mainly cricket in the Commonwealth has been a big unifier. Commonwealth countries in that way know each other much more than the countries that are outside the Commonwealth through cricket. Because cricket is a big sport in Commonwealth countries, it is a major sport. In India it’s a passion, in Pakistan it’s a passion, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh (although they are not very strong as yet), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies – it is something that ties these countries better than the other countries which are outside the Commonwealth.