Commonwealth Games 2010: England chief accused of snubbing Australia

In a diplomatic row that has bounced around the globe, the Australian media has taken exception to Hunter's effort to downplay the competition among the countries - fuelled in part by aggressive Australian explanation in the past two days that were disrespectful of the sudden withdrawal of most of the world ranked Team England cyclists.

Australia finished as the top ranked Common wealth nation at Melbourne four years ago, scoring double the number of gold medals and finishing with 222 medals against England's 110.

But when asked about England's rivals at the New Delhi Games, Hunter replied: "For the last three sports event we have been second on the medal table.

"We recognize India, because of the nature of the events in the games, there are some core events that the host nation can include - clearly India will be a real force to be reckoned with - and Canada who have been investing massively in their program and have had great success at the Vancouver Olympics and that will be a knock-on effect.