Commonwealth Games: Buzz missing in Birmingham

After all, it's been a decade since England hosted its last quadrennial sporting extravaganza, the London Olympics in 2012. Birmingham has always been known for its 'Bull Ring' at the city's Central Business District where a bronze bull statute has its pride of place.

India's history at the Commonwealth Games

No wonder, the official mascot 'Perry' resembles a bull but just when bump into Perry and start grinning from ear to ear, the smile vanishes before you can spell 'B-I-R-M-I-N-G-H-A-M'. There are a couple of itsy-bitsy posters or dare we call some insignificant billboards do let people know that indeed an event of this magnitude is happening in England's second largest city and home to a sizeable Asian population. More than 5000 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations are set to take part in the multi-sporting spectacle but the prospect doesn't seem to be exciting enough for the general public. The lack of excitement in the city centre for the Games was clearly visible as the locals went about their business on a nippy Tuesday afternoon. It was just another Tuesday and there was nothing special about it. The widely reported heat wave in the UK suddenly seemed to be a thing of the past with maximum temperature hovering around 20 degrees and the gloomy English weather, depressing for people used to bright sunshine only added to the woes. The canal running through Birmingham Indoor Arena, one of the main CWG venues, brought calm and the organisers would be hoping it would lead to a storm of spectators in the coming days with over 1.2 millions tickets sold. It seems the entire country is glued into the Women's Euro Football Championship, which has reached the business end, but asking about the Commonwealth Games draws a