Bill Bridge: Endeavours in Delhi underscore the value of the Commonwealth Games

Given that the coverage has been largely shown when most of the population are at work or study there is an argument to be made that the money has not been well spent. Far better, some would say, to have bought the rights to the Ryder Cup.

And that point has been stretched in some quarters to a much more important issue: whether the Commonwealth Games themselves are worth the money and effort.

"Everybody," as the mind-numbing TV advert goes, "has an opinion. What's yours worth?"

Well, in the debate on the Commonwealth Games the answer would have to be in the positive, on many fronts.

First is the fact that they provide perhaps the best means of bringing together the young people of those otherwise disparate countries bound together by an ideal which is perhaps outdated but which still has value. If there were no Games there would be one less reason to have a Commonwealth.

Then there is the opportunity the Games offer athletes from a wide variety of disciplines, not all of them on the Olympic schedules, to test their ability against others who have similarly spent much of their time improving their standards and love nothing more than competition. For all that training not to have an end would reduce the incentive.

There is also the political link. If England – or Scotland for that matter – had not sent a fair representation of their best athletes to Delhi you can be sure that India and some of those countries which rely on the explosion in the Indian economy to support their own expansion might not be all of a rush to compete in the 2012 London Olympics or the Commonwealth Games two years later in Glasgow.

Which brings us closer to home. Hosting an event like the Commonwealth Games can give an enormous impetus to a city. The economies of Manchester and Edinburgh were given a massive lift by their Games and the improvement of facilities in those cities was beneficial for sport in those regions.

Glasgow will similarly benefit on several levels and the impact on Sheffield of hosting the World Student Games – for all that some still question whether the money was well spent – included putting that city at the forefront of English sport, a position it still enjoys.

Delhi will hope that, despite problems real and imagined, their Games will have a lasting effect, not least in that people, having seen India on their screens, will want to visit.

They will know that, come Thursday's closing ceremony, they have had their chance to impress; whether or not they will succeed in reaping the reward is for them and the future to decide.

But one thing is sure: without organisations like the BBC broadcasting 10 days of sport from India there would have been no Games at all, such is the importance of TV rights these days.

India would have lost, so would a dedicated group of sportsmen and women and so would the Commonwealth.

AS he travels round the country discovering what is happening to the game at every level from grass roots to the most ambitious of our professional clubs, John Steele, the recently-installed chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, will be having ears well pummelled; rugby has never been a game short of people with opinions.

They will find Steele in agreement with the most widely-held point of view: Martin Johnson's England team is not good enough.

He will placate the grumblers by repeating the mantra he has espoused at least once an hour since his installation as successor to Francis Baron: "The England team's rankings are not where we have all wanted them to be. The England team is our flagship and we need to ensure it is performing to the best of its ability."

He freely acknowledges the importance of this autumn's internationals and the forthcoming Six Nations' Championship as testing grounds ahead of next year's World Cup in New Zealand but he will also be relishing news from an unexpected source, the Aviva Premiership clubs themselves.

One of Baron's last initiatives was to double the amount of "bounty" available to clubs fielding England-qualified players to 2m and, as ever in today's game, money talks.

England's director of elite rugby Rob Andrew has revealed that the increase to funding has brought a swift response with 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs having exceeded the RFU threshold of picking an average of 14 England-qualified players for their match-day squads of 23, a massive leap from last season when only eight clubs reached the minimum.

"Bath and Harlequins have been averaging 18 England-qualified players in their match-day squads while the average is 15. That gives us more players to pick from and the more competition we create the better England team we will have," says Andrew.

Perhaps the next step for Steele and Andrew is to increase the qualifying base line from 14 England players in a club squad to 18 and provide as an incentive a little more cash from Twickenham's burgeoning coffers. If the money is right the clubs will perform.

and another thing...

RACING is going through one of its periodical navel-gazing exercises to find out why more people do not sample the Sport of Kings and the outcome of all the thinking has been, so far, disappointing with the emphasis seemingly on promoting our larger courses at the expenses of their smaller brethren.

Perhaps a glimpse towards the bar might be beneficial. Like the cosy retreat overlooking the winning post at one of the region's generally most welcoming courses where the staff have desperate trouble pulling a pint of Guinness, a problem which has persisted for some time.

A request on a recent visit was met with the usual "sorry, sir, we're having trouble with the pump; someone's looking at it now." That was followed by the inevitable enquiry as to whether canned black stuff would be in order. Reluctantly, the tins were ordered and eventually poured, two exactly filling a pint glass and a half.

Had draught been available the price would have been around 5; cans were the only option but two cost 7.20. That is extortionate.