David Leggat: Volunteers' sweat keeping wheels turning

If there's one virtue you need above all during these Commonwealth Games it is patience.

Don't lose your cool in the heat and dust. Be prepared to count to 10. Then 20. Then 30.

Yesterday there was a moment which spoke volumes about one aspect of this event.

Remember, the Games were awarded to New Delhi seven years ago. You might have thought that was adequate time to get the show up to speed.

Set aside all the well-documented issues around the preparations for the Games. Here's one small vignette, and it doubles as a salute to the countless volunteers doing their bit to make things run as smoothly as possible here in New Delhi.

Outside the main press centre, the buses transporting international media to Sunday's opening ceremony were grouped with no semblance of organisation. After a while the bulk of those heading to the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium - for what turned out to be a vivid splash of colour to open to the Games - had departed, but there were others still remaining, wanting to go in different directions.

The buses sat arrayed haphazardly around what is supposed to be the transport hub. Trying to orchestrate manoeuvres was a young woman, perhaps in her early 20s.

She was polite, organised and clearly didn't suffer fools. She clutched a clipboard on which a plan was clearly outlined and was trying to get some order out of the chaos.

Her helpers were primarily teenage boys and they were being, well, teenage boys. Headless chooks, more like.

The bus drivers themselves were no help.

The young woman was doing her best in an impossible situation. This was a routine which should have had preparatory dry runs three months ago. There had been none.

Finally when her shouting, cajoling, pleading and arm waving had produced a nil result, she stopped for a moment. She stood dead still and slowly rested her head on her clipboard for maybe 10 seconds.

You didn't need a degree in Hindi to know what was going through her mind.

The volunteers are the lifeblood of the Games. No volunteers, no Games - and no mistake about that.

There are communication disasters at every turn, a shambolic transport system in which timetables are no more than a rough approximation and which Delhi police alter without warning on security grounds.

The volunteers who have to find answers and solutions deserve better than this. They've been dealt a rotten hand by the Games' organisers.

Still, they smile; they love the fact that their city is hosting the Commonwealth Games, and they help where they can, but often in situations that are far beyond their scope.

And for the next few days, the image of that woman with her clipboard will stick in the mind as a reminder that for all the spirit, the joyous images, the terrific sights and sounds of New Delhi's Commonwealth Games, for those down in the trenches it's a rather different affair.