The Commonwealth Games are not expected to be particularly gripping viewing for sports fans. After all, most of the top international athletes have pulled out, citing everything from scheduling to muscle strains as evidence of India’s abysmal planning piled up and Delhi was stricken with an outbreak of dengue fever.

Troubles besetting the New Delhi Commonwealth Games have thrown a fresh spotlight on the grouping's long-term decline, but a role in facilitating behind-the-scenes diplomacy will ensure its continued survival.

The first batch of athletes arrived in India for the Commonwealth Games on Friday, opting to stay at a hotel instead of unfinished, filthy accommodation as the future of the showcase event hung in the balance.

Commonwealth Games 2010 will not be about sports only, it would also have other elements to make it more vibrant and colourful. One such component that would add more colour to the mega-event will be Australia''s cultural representation at the Games.

At the time these lines were being written, a very important basketball event was taking place in Turkey: the 2010 World Championship held by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The tournament ended on Sunday, but as a basketball fan I will still say that, despite the outcome, there were two winners: Greece and Turkey.

...a very important basketball event is taking place in Turkey: the 2010 World Championship held by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA)...This event could be the opportunity Greece and Turkey need to get closer to each other, not in terms of high-level politics, but in terms of initiatives coming from below, from the grassroots.

Taiwan's sports diplomacy is in full swing! That's as the country recently completed construction on a national tennis center in Saint Lucia. Republic of China Ambassador to Saint Lucia Tom Chou said that the purpose of building the tennis center is to make tennis a national pastime in Taiwan's Caribbean ally.

US and Iran faced off at the World Basketball Championships here on Wednesday night, electrifying Iranian fans and offering a rare opportunity for people of the two arch-enemy nations to meet face to face. It was the latest instance of sports diplomacy first used by both sides in the late 1990s to ease US-Iran hostility.