Mani Shankar Aiyar is, by all accounts, a learned man with a heart in the right place. And Suresh Kalmadi, by all accounts, is a clever sports administrator with an uncanny instinct for fame and money. As the two slug it out over the Commonwealth Games, what is clear is that Indian sports needs neither. Regardless of the success or otherwise of the Commonwealth Games, India will bid for the Olympic Games, sooner or later and when that happens, you wouldn’t want either to be in the picture. You would want somebody like Lalit Modi, the fallen IPL commissioner.

Aiyar has no passion for sports and should never have been given the sports ministry, even for a brief period. His curse on the Commonwealth Games is hardly to be taken seriously except for those spoiling for a fight.

“I am very happy with the rains, firstly because it will ensure good agriculture for the country and secondly, because it will ensure that the Commonwealth Games are spoilt,” he told reporters with a big smile. “Personally, I will be unhappy if the Commonwealth Games were (to be) a success,” he said, leaving no doubt in anybody’s minds about his wishes.

Such peevish remarks undermine the man himself, however much he might oppose, intellectually and otherwise, the hosting of the games by India. On reflection, I have a feeling Aiyar will retract and regret the comment. It is not that many in the sports fraternity would not question the necessity for India to host the games, at exorbitant cost to the taxpayer, or even question the resultant benefits to sportsmen. But few, if any, would to curse the games.

A reason Aiyar gave for his curse is that, if the Commonwealth Games were to be successfully hosted, India would aspire to again host the Asian Games or for the first time the Olympics. Aiyar should know that India, sooner or later, will bid for the Olympics. This is because India craves for world attention, and might want to reap benefits similar to those harvested by China when it hosted the Olympics in Beijing in 2008.

That brings us to Kalmadi. The day India bids for the Olympic Games, Kalmadi would hardly be the man it would want to run them. For decades, he has governed several Olympic sports with little or no success. India’s medals tally at the Olympics would bear out that statement. Kalmadi has a reputation of being a good organizer but clearly that’s taken some beating with the Commonwealth Games. Months ago, Mike Hooper, the chief executive overseeing the games, set off alarm bells. Yet, al that achieved was a public verbal battle with the New Zealander, but little haste in speeding up works. With about two months to go, Kalmadi has yet to get the games’ preparation back on track, leaving India hoping for the proverbial eleventh-hour miracle.

For the day India hosts the Olympics, India would need somebody like Lalit Modi, who can bring the efficiency of a modern-day corporation and the passion of a young startup. Modi, for all his failings, brought both qualities to bear on the Indian Premier League, bringing unprecedented success. In 1984, Los Angeles hired Peter Ueberroth, a former airline executive who had also founded a successful travel company, to run the games. The games were not only a huge success but also for the first time in Olympic history, were completely financed by the private sector.

What Indian sports need is somebody like Modi or Ueberroth, not Kalmadi or Aiyar.