That set off a round of the blame game, with the organizers condemning government officials, the builders and an international “conspiracy,” while nearly everyone else in India implicates the organizing committee.

Suresh Kalmadi, who was responsible for bringing the Commonwealth Games to the world's largest democracy and for running the organizing committee, has been the chief recipient of scorn from a public upset about India's tarnished image.

“I am ready to face a judicial inquiry. Hang me if I am found guilty,” Kalmadi said in an interview replayed repeatedly Tuesday with Indian news channel CNN-IBN. “But when the games are over, I should get the credit also.” Kalmadi spent more than a year assuring backers and critics that India could produce a spectacle to rival the 2008 Beijing Olympics, despite the problem-plagued preparations that have included corruption allegations and concerns over the quality of construction amid the scramble to finish before the Oct. 3-14 event.

Until last month, he retained almost complete control of the organizing committee despite the flaws in the preparations.

His authority was further eroded when Kalmadi was ignored for an urgent meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week to take stock of the deteriorating situation in the weeks leading up to the games. The union development minister and the Delhi chief minister attended it immediately after reports of a filthy athletes' village and a collapsed bridge near the main venue.

“What can I do if I am not invited for the meeting?” Kalmadi asked. He did not return phone calls from The Associated Press on Tuesday, but was upbeat in his interview on the domestic broadcasting rights holder.

In the interview, he blamed recent international criticism on a “part conspiracy.” “Some countries did not want India to get the games,” he said, adding that high-ranking Indian politicians had worked against the games.

He appeared to be referring to former Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who has been a major critic of India's decision to bid for the games and publicly hoped for the event to implode in failure.

“The money being spent on the games could have been utilized for developing infrastructure in rural areas and for training sports persons in various disciplines to make India a sporting nation,” he said.

Kalmadi blames Aiyar for delaying work during his two-year tenure as sports minister.

Work on venues, roads and projects meant to beautify the city started years late and repeatedly missed deadlines set out on the host city contract by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

The blame for that, Kalmadi said, lies with the various government agencies responsible for building.

In India's inefficient bureaucracy, a mishmash of agencies responsible for the construction projects is so tangled that estimates of the games' cost range from $3 billion to more than $10 billion. Regardless, very little work was actually done until 2008, a year after the committee had originally proposed it would finish them, according to the bid document.

In recent weeks, officials dismissed concerns comparing the hectic preparations with an Indian wedding - all chaos in the planning, but a stunning spectacle in the end.

Others placed their faith in jugaad, the Indian art of last-minute, improvised solutions, akin to jamming a ballpoint pen into a carburetor to get it working instead of going to a mechanic.

Kalmadi's recent statements are being interpreted by some as a desperate attempt to salvage his reputation.

“Kalmadi is not a shadow of the manager we have known him to be,” said Norris Pritam, a former athlete who has worked with Kalmadi on other events and is a regular sports analyst on Indian TV. “It looks like he is cornered after pressure from within the Congress party.” The government started to reduce Kalmadi's power last month by appointing a group of ministers to the organizing committee after an audit body identified concerns over tender procedures and inflated costs.

Pritam said Kalmadi is helpless now as government officials are running the show.

“The bureaucracy is reported to have virtually taken charge in organizational matters,” he said.

Though Kalmadi continues to say he has the backing of the ruling Congress party, which he represents in Parliament, he made a rare departure last week by clarifying that his job was only to deliver the games.

“The construction of venues was not done by me, “he said. “I only wish they handed (them) over to us much earlier and we could have finished the overlaying works in time.” Kalmadi's position as head of the national Olympic committee is also under threat. Contrary to International Olympic Committee conventions, the Indian government recently proposed legislation to put a cap of 12 years on tenure of senior sports federation officials.

The 66-year-old Kalmadi has headed the national Olympic body for 14 years and will be ineligible for another stint according to the new guidelines.

A former air force pilot, a successful businessman and a shrewd politician from the western city of Pune, Kalmadi reportedly also faces dissension within the Indian Olympic Association.

The general-secretary of the IOA, Randhir Singh, is known to have his strong backing and a better say in the international sports fraternity, as he is an International Olympic Committee member.