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The UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has revealed that the expenses for the London Olympics would be within the budget allocated for the games. A budget of 9.3 billion pounds was set in 2007. Hugh Robertson has indicated that about 500 million pounds would be returned to the Treasury as they are within the budget. This is how you come out smelling like a rose. Set a high budget with a huge contingency in the budget (2 billion pounds) and then keep your spending within the budget. You get lauded for your fiscal responsibility. Compare that to the heat receieved by Singapore's former Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Vivian Balakrishnan. The budget set for the Youth Olympic Games was $104 million and the spending went up to $387 million. Although the Olympic Games cannot be compared with the Youth Olympic Games in terms of logistics and expenses, I am trying to draw a comparison with the way expectation management is done. The organising committee for th...

There are many of us sports fans and purists who just love to see a sporting event unfold dramatically with lots of on the field and off the field stories to digest. But, there is one sporting event that always seems to attract off-the-field drama of a different kind. The Olympic games seem to be pursued by politics all the time. Now, it is China's turn to face the music. Hosting the Olympics is a matter of pride for any nation. Certainly in the case of this emerging power, it is an opportunity to showcase the arrival of China as a nation of significance economically and politically. But, it was inevitable that in this Olympic year some political issue would have grabbed the limelight. I was having a conversation the other day with a friend about mixing politics with sport. This friend was insistent that the Tibetan issue should be kept out of the Olympics and the torch relay should not have been marred by the disrespectful pro-Tibet groups. I believe that we are not in a pos...