Four of them will be athletes, four will be swimmers, one will be a cyclist.Secretary to the The Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey, Alan Cross, also wanted gymnasts and a rugby team to go, but was reminded that the number of competitors from all the Commonwealth Games countries would be restricted to 1,000.’When I tried to make a case for Jersey to send a rugby team, I was told that they had held the number of representative teams to eight.
And as four of those would be Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and England, I took their point.’Who those nine teenagers will be has yet to be decided, but Cross said that since he and Martin Hebden had been elected as secretary and president of the CGAJ in April, as well as being in touch with the Commonwealth Games Federation at European and world levels, they had been looking at what the council’s role ought to be, locally, for the good of sport in the future.’Two working parties, or focus groups, have been set up,’ he said.
‘The constitution group is under Derek Ferguson, while Paul du Feu has been elected to head the Selection and Appeals group.’Both focus groups have had four meetings apiece.
They include a spread of delegates from various sports, and they have come up with two very good reports which I believe have dealt will all the issues we wanted raised.’One of those issues has been to look again at an appeals procedure which, in the past, saw anyone rejected for Commonwealth Games’ selection having to go, for a second time, before the same people who had rejected them in the first place.This will almost certainly change, although when the council meets, on Monday 3 November, to consider the reports, they will either have to wait for the next agm before any changes can be made, or else matters will be decided earlier, through an extraordinary general meeting.Cross thinks that the latter will most probably be the case.’Martin and I have already met 12 of the 18 affiliated bodies, as we try to find out how their sports operate from a Commonwealth Games point of view,’ said Cross.’And Martin has also been over to Hamilton, Ontario, which has put a bid in for the Commonwealth Games of 2010.
New Delhi have also submitted a bid, and the decision as to where those Games will be held will be decided in Jamaica later this year.’Although the Commonwealth Games will never be as big as the Olympics, the concept of a Youth Commonwealth Games has really taken hold, and Cross said that his Association recognise its worth, not just in Bendigo, but in years to come.’The idea is that they will be held in the same country which will host the Commonwealth Games two years later,’ he said, ‘and countries wanting to host the full Commonwealth Games must include the Youth Commonwealth Games as part of their bid.’
