casting a spell: Games get underway

AFTER weeks of setbacks and controversies the 2010 Commonwealth Games opened with a spectacular ceremony in Delhi.

The Prince of Wales joined India’s president Pratibha Patil at the opening ceremony that welcomed many of the 6,000 participating athletes.

Unprecedented levels of security are in place with around 30,000 police deployed at the event’s 41 venues, reinforced by thousands of troops.

However the success was tempered by the announcement that an official on the Indian lawn bowling team had contracted dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease which has struck around 3,500 people in Delhi this year.

Friendly games: Page 13.