Organisers of the Games have come under increasingly heavy fire in the past few days due to the poor condition of the athlete’s village with some of the more prominent Commonwealth nations, including Scotland, New Zealand and Canada; delaying the arrival of their athletes in India.

But England have provided they event with a huge boost by confirming their intention to compete in India.

An England statement said: "Commonwealth Games England and its 17 member sports today unanimously agreed that they will go to the Delhi Games.

"Commonwealth Games England’s Chef de Mission, Craig Hunter, and our team in Delhi, are now seeing the improved levels of resourcing which are required to resolve the significant operational issues, but we will continue to monitor the situation daily to ensure the Village and stadia are safe and fit for purpose.

"The Board continues to press the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games Federation for assurances on both the stadia and the accommodation as well as liaising with the British Government.

"At all times the safety and security of our team is paramount."

The first England team athletes, including he hockey teams, flew out to Delhi tonight.

Wales earlier confirmed that they will be competing in India though the news was somewhat dampened by the announcement from Olympic champion Geraint Thomas that he is pulling out of the Commonwealth Games over health and safety risks and cited dengue fever - a disease passed on by mosquitoes that is currently rife in India - as one of the major concerns.

The 24-year-old was one of Wales' biggest medal hopes in Delhi in the 4,000 metres individual pursuit, the road race and time trial but followed Team Sky teammates Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift in pulling out the Games.

Thomas (pictured) said: "It’s a massive disappointment, first and foremost, but the hygiene and the risk of getting ill, it was a massive risk.

"As an athlete, you go to a Games like that and all you want to think about is your race, you don’t want to think about picking up bugs and things like that.

"It’s such a hard decision because I only get to ride for Wales once every four years.

"I really wanted to go and to improve on my bronze medal from Melbourne [in 2006] but it’s my health.

"I’ve got a family and girlfriend to think about and it’s not worth the risk."

Delhi, though, appears to be slowly turning a corner on their disastrous build up to the event with, Scott Stevenson, director of Sport for Commonwealth Games Canada, admitting that dramatic improvements have been made in athlete’s village the last 24 hours.

He said: "We are starting to now be in a better position to turn our focus toward sport again, which is really exciting because it is what most of us are all about."

Stevenson added that Sheila Dikshit, Delhi's Chief Minister , is largely responsible for a flurry of progress inside the Athletes' Village and with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervening into the situation demanding urgent progress on cleaning up the village, it appears that India's capital may just avoid the major embarrassment of widespread boycotts of the competition.

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