“I don’t think it is a cultural thing. When you agree to host (a Games) you are required to provide the basics in terms of health and hygiene for the athletes,” Australia Olympic Committee president John Coates said.
“The Games shouldn’t have been awarded to Delhi in hindsight.”
As athletes begin arriving in Delhi, authorities are still working on completing Games venues, forcing some teams to take up temporary accommodation at hotels.
Cyclist Greg Henderson earlier on Friday became the first New Zealand athlete to withdraw over concerns about health and security.
Olympic cycling champion Geraint Thomas and three other Welsh riders also opted out of the Games, due to start on October 3.
India had hoped to use the Games to display its growing global economic and political influence, rivalling China.
Instead, they have become a major embarrassment for the government, which is trying to fend off criticism of poor construction, inadequate security and dirty accommodation.
The Games, held every four years for mostly former British colonies, are estimated to have cost $6 billion.
The Delhi Games may turn out to be the most compromised since a 1986 boycott of the Games in Britain, when 32 nations stayed away because of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government’s position over apartheid South Africa.
Several nations have voiced concern over the state of the Games. India, Asia’s third largest economy, was awarded the Games in 2003 but did not begin proper preparations until two years ago.
Australian and New Zealand prime ministers said they understood if their athletes decided not to take part.
But England said it would send 551 athletes to the Games because there were signs of improvement on the ground in New Delhi, and said the first group of 22 was leaving on Thursday.
Kenya said it would send a 240-strong team after receiving security assurances from India, officials said, though several of its top athletes have withdrawn because of illness or fatigue.
Wales also gave its team the all-clear to go.
New Zealand, Canada and Scotland have opted to delay their arrivals because of poor athletes’ accommodation at the New Delhi Games village, with heavy monsoon rain and a dengue epidemic adding to images of filthy apartments and roaming stray dogs.
Suspected militants shot and wounded two foreign visitors in New Delhi on Sunday.
“SECURITY IN PLACE”
Commonwealth Games Federation CEO Mike Hooper said he was hopeful the Games would get off the ground, given a new sense of urgency among Indian officials.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reviewed preparations with senior ministers, an official in his office said, in what was seen as a last-ditch effort to avoid teams withdrawing.
England said in a statement that its advance party “are now seeing the improved levels of resourcing which are required” but added that it would monitor the situation daily “to ensure the village and stadia are safe and fit for purpose”.
Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Delhi organising committee, said no team would pull out.
“I can assure you that security is well in place. Now if some people have their own conception (of security), I can’t help,” he told reporters.
In a sign of desperation, the federal government ordered the organising committee to hand over management of the Games Village, which will house 6,500 athletes, to the government.
By contrast, preparations for November’s Asian Games in China, which held a successful Olympics in 2008, are on track, with organisers in Guangzhou handing over the athletes’ village to the Asian Games authorities for sign-off this week.
Many sporting events have hit trouble before opening, such as the 2004 Athens Olympics, and some of Delhi’s infrastructure projects, including a new metro and airport, have won praise.
But polls in newspapers show that a vast majority of Indians are ashamed. Singh has been accused of failing to recognise that events like the Games carry huge international prestige. Much of the Congress-led government remains focused on its rural vote.
Organisers have sent more than 1,000 workers to clean the Games Village apartments.
New Zealand chef de mission Dave Currie said organisers had ignored problems. “Every time we raised an issue (we were told) ‘yes that will be fixed tomorrow’, but you know clearly that it won’t be fixed tomorrow,” he said. “And they weren’t.”
World discus champion Dani Samuels of Australia pulled out because of concerns, as did England’s world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu. Four other champions have quit for various reasons, including injuries.
Triple Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica is the highest-profile athlete to skip the event.
A portion of false ceiling in the weightlifting venue caved in on Wednesday, a day after the collapse of a footbridge by the main stadium, injuring 27 workers.
Severe delays in the completion of the athletes’ village led Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell to contact the Indian government Tuesday and urge them to finish work on the accommodation – which many have described as “unlivable” – in time for the October 3-14 games.
“Many nations that have already sent their advanced parties to set up within the village have made it abundantly clear that, as of the afternoon of September 20th, the Commonwealth Games Village is seriously compromised,” Fennell said in a statement.
“The CGF has asked the Cabinet Secretary to immediately deploy the necessary resources to fix all the outstanding issues to an acceptable level.”
The athletes’ village is due to open to the first 7,000 athletes and officials on Thursday. The Times of India newspaper reported that only 18 of 34 residential towers at the village are complete.
New Zealand team manager Dave Currie said the games may not go ahead.
“In the time frame that is left, unless there is tremendous effort and energy and problem-solving ability to get it done, it’s going to be extremely hard to get across the line,” Currie told New Zealand radio network newstalkZB. “If the village is not ready and athletes can’t come, obviously the implications of that are that (the event) is not going to happen.”
Currie said New Zealand would consult with other countries before making a final decision on whether it will take part in the games.
“That’s not a decision that we’ll make (alone), but there are some realities,” he said.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key also weighed in.
“The areas (of concern) aren’t insurmountable although there are real concerns about whether they can be achieved in the timeframe,” he said, adding that it was “unlikely that New Zealand would make a call that other countries weren’t prepared to make.”
The build-up to the Commonwealth Games has been plagued by problems with construction of venues and infrastructure falling behind schedule, causing concern over the safety and quality of the buildings and speculation of corruption in the awarding of contracts and structural compliance certificates.
But the delays in construction have been overshadowed more recently by safety concerns, heightened on the weekend after two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle shot and wounded two tourists near the Jama Masjid, one of India’s biggest mosques.
Other countries also voiced concern about the athletes’ village.
Commonwealth Games Scotland said the area allocated to the team was “unsafe and unfit for human habitation,” while Commonwealth Games England said “there is a lot to be done in the village and this needs to be done with some urgency so that it is ready for the arrival of our first athletes on Friday.”
Australia’s chef de mission, retired marathon runner Steve Moneghetti, said that Indian organizers “have got two days to do what’s probably going to take about two weeks.”
Fennell said advance parties from the international Commonwealth Games Associations had been impressed with the international zone and main dining area within the village, but the condition of the residential zone shocked the majority of them.
“Despite (the CGAs) attempts to work with the organizing committee in a constructive manner since arriving on Sept. 15, significant operational matters remain unaddressed,” Fennell said. “The problems are arising because deadlines for the completion of the village have been consistently pushed out. Now, the high security around the site, while vital, is slowing progress and complicating solutions.”
CGF chief executive Mike Hooper said organizers had not lived up to promises on delivery dates.
“The conditions continued to be appalling and so we felt the matter needed to be elevated. That is why our chairman spoke to top Indian government officials,” Hooper said Tuesday in New Delhi. “Organizing committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi now tells me that the cabinet secretary took a round of the village and assured that everything possible would be done.”
Hooper said newspaper reports of human excrement around the village were true.
British bookmaker William Hill i offering 5-1 odds that the games will fail to go ahead as scheduled, and 2-1 that either England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland will pull out.
“Environment and accommodation are key components in the preparations of athletes. Should reports from Delhi be true, it is understandable why governing bodies would want to stay away,” Hill spokesman Joe Crilly said.
Scottish officials found their original accommodation to be "unsafe and unfit for human habitation".
England are "optimistic" they will compete, but say urgent work is needed before the Games begin on 3 October.
But Welsh officials are content with their headquarters and believe that organisers "should be able to do it."
Northern Ireland's first representatives are leaving for India on Tuesday and have lined up alternative accommodation in case their scheduled quarters are not ready.
Building works have fallen well behind schedule in the build-up to the Games and Thursday's official opening of the village to 7000 athletes and officials now looms large.
Safety fears were heightened after at least one person was injured as a pedestrian bridge collapsed near the event's main stadium on Tuesday.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell, who has written to the Indian government expressing his concern over progress, has warned that security around the site has delayed improvements.
"Many nations that have already sent their advanced parties to set up within the village have made it abundantly clear that, as of the afternoon of 20 September, the Commonwealth Games Village is seriously compromised," he said.
However Randhir Singh, vice-president of the event's organising committee, is confident that the village will be delivered as promised.
"There were some flats that the labour force was working on and they had dirtied certain other flats," said Singh.
Scotland have called on the Commonwealth Games Federation "to make a realistic decision as to at what point and under what conditions...the Games will be able to go ahead should the village issues not be resolved".
India's monsoon weather has revealed new plumbing and electrical problems ahead of the arrival of England's first athletes on Thursday.
"Commonwealth Games England remains optimistic that England participation at the Games can go ahead," read a statement.
"However there is a lot still to be done in the Village and this needs to be done with some urgency."
Wales have previously lodged a formal complaint over conditions in the village, however chef de mission Chris Jenkins is now confident his team's accommodation is on track.
"It's in a good state now: it's clean, the plumbing's working, the wiring's working, the electric is working, the air conditioning works, the medical clinic is pretty much set up," he told BBC Sport Wales.
Unless there is tremendous effort and energy and problem-solving ability to get it done, it's going to be extremely hard to get across the line."
However New Zealand Prime Minister John Key played down the implications of Currie's downbeat assessment.
"I think he was just reflecting the frustrations we had expressed to us overnight," he said.
"I wouldn't say that means the Commonwealth Games would be off. It's unlikely that New Zealand would make a call (to pull out) that other countries weren't prepared to make."
Australia and Canada are the other two teams to have set up camp in Delhi at the earliest opportunity.
Australia's chef de mission Steve Moneghetti said his officials "didn't seem that concerned about the overall condition of the village", but claimed organisers "have got two days to do what's probably going to take about two weeks".
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