For the Edmonton organisers, history presented awkward problems.

They had to struggle in the wake of the criticism provoked by the heavy tax burden which Montreal's staging the Games left upon its citizens, and they also had to proceed with care to ensure there that the African nations which had boycotted the 1976 Olympics because of a New Zealand rugby tour to apartheid South Africa were not provoked once again.

Glasgow 2014, thankfully, will not have to address such issues.

Indeed, for the Commonwealth Movement - particularly in the aftermath of the troubled Delhi Games - Glasgow 2014 will be a Position Of Maximum Opportunity.

And unlike the dire footballing version of that acronym, championed in defence of the long ball tactic by the former director of coaching at the Football Association, Charles Hughes, this Commonwealth version is likely to be flexible and fruitful.

No one is more determined than Sir Andrew Foster (pictured holding baton), to maximise the benefits of Britain's forthcoming sporting bonanza.

In his position as chairman of Commonwealth Games England (CGE), Foster - whose report on the state of British athletics in 2004 was used as the basis of a major reform - is re-shaping and reinvigorating his organisation with a view to maximising gains over the next few special years.

This weekend CGE has placed adverts in the national press seeking applicants for the posts of chief executive, sports director and commercial director, all of whom will be expected to oversee a crucial period for which the organisation has already drawn up a strategy programme.

"We will be generating a step change on the back of these appointments," Foster told insidethegames. "We are looking at a different sort of approach.

"There hasn't been a time when whe have had an Olympics in the UK followed by the Commonwealth Games. We expect that will mean an unprecedented level of interest in multi-sports.

"We want to use this opportunity to develop and enhance the Commonwealth Games and England's role in them. We believe there never could have been a better opportunity for us to develop the Games.

"And we are changing our management structure so we can make sure we have the expertise in place to make the most of this opportunity."

In the wake of the Delhi Games - which looked like a potential disaster at one point but eventually saw England emerge with a broadly positive range of experiences and a record number of overseas medals - Foster's organisation has put together a strategy for the next three years.

There are four key areas: improving delivery during the Games, developing better relations with other organisations such as national governing bodies, building the CGE brand with a view to securing a long-term commercial sponsor, and reviewing and optimising the management structure.

Within those laudable aims are 12 pledges, which will at certain points require an approach that is indeed different on behalf of England's Commonwealth organisation, and indeed on behalf of the Games themselves.

One of the most dynamic intentions, from the England point of view, is to increase the spread of top names electing to take part in the Commonwealths. Essentially, the strategy is to edge away from the notion that the Commonwealths are a great nursery slope.

From the point of view of the CGE, Delhi was a big learning experience in which some, but not all elements, were ideal.

Foster was swift to praise the commitment of the swimming team which secured 34 medals, including four by Rebecca Adlington (pictured), the most it has won at a Games outside Britain.


But the CGE chairman was critical of the stance of some other sports, including cycling, which included only one of its 13 medallists from Beijing in order to allow the main names to prepare for the European Championships starting in Poland almost immediately after the Commonwealths.

"We had our best swimmers in Delhi, pitted against the Australians, and they did very well," Foster said. "The Games served as a major developmental experience for our top swimmers.

"That's the sort of model we need to develop across all sports.

"But we also have to say that we were disappointed that our performance in cycling was not better in Delhi. That was because of some of the clashes that were there with other events, which we would like to try and avoid in future.

"We have got a range of very good English cyclists, but the team didn't do as well as we might have hoped.

"We would want to work with the sports to see what it is they needed from the Games in order to make sure that it was a slam dunk to athletes to want to be there.

"The Commonwealth Games needs to stand up and make itself relevant to athletes' needs.

We know that for sports such as, for instance, netball, the Commonwealths are effectively their Olympics.

But we need there to be a clear understanding among performance directors and athletes that this is an event that matters, and it should have a proper place in the sporting calendar.

We need to make sure the Commonwealth Games make athletes feel 'We must be there." We need to push harder if we are to action that properly. We need to get a virtuous circle turning.

"Performance directors need to see the Commonwealth Games, which are the second biggest multi-sport Games in the world, as being a very valuable opportunity for their athletes

"So it is not just a case of us saying, 'come along and bring your top team to our Games'. It's 'how do we develop these events in a way that is useful and valuable to you?'"

Foster also hinted that, in the longer term, the Commonwealths might enter into funding equations where they are currently absent.

"The Commonwealth Games needs to make itself valuable, to be recognised as a significant developmental event," he added.

"And it needs to press its case with funders. If you make yourself valuable to all of your sports then you have got a very good case to put to the funders."

On the financial front, finding long-term sponsorship is described in the CGE strategy document, entitled Stepping Up, as a "critically important area of challenge."

From a commercial position in 2009 which was described as "desert terrain" – there was, for instance, not even a kit sponsor for England's team at the 2006 Games in Melbourne – CGE now view the post 2012 period as "most fertile" in terms of securing commercial support.

"As far as Glasgow is concerned, these will be a home Games, and we believe sponsorship and media interest will be at an all-time high level after the London 2012 Games," Foster said.

"We have secured our first major sponsor in National Express and adidas were our kit and clothing sponsor in Delhi, and it does look like there is more interest in the Commonwealth Games post the Olympics than we would have thought.

"We feel reasonably optimistic that there will be sponsors there. We are not there yet.

"But we have already got one major sponsor on board in National Express and we feel we have a really good opportunity of delivering some others."

The CGE is also looking into the possibility of emulating Canada and Australia by assisting smaller nations to attend the Games in Glasgow.

"We should find ways of looking to assist some other smaller nations to see if we can help them to attend future Games," Foster said. "As an idea it is very much in the foothills, but it is very much worth doing.

In Delhi we were involving in offering advice to less developed countries about coaching programmes and development. I will be very disappointed if we don't manage to go to Glasgow with some partnerships of this nature in place."

The impending changes to the management structure, Foster maintained, were part of a general movement to make the CGE - which re-branded itself last year with the WeAreEngland logo - more attractive to sponsors.

"We already have a wealth of expertise on our board with people such as our president, Dame Kelly Holmes, Lawrence Dallaglio, David Robinson, who is CEO of Speedo, and Arsenal's marketing director Angus Kinnear," Foster said.

"It is all a case of making it look to sponsors like a very supportable proposition."

It is also part of the CGE strategy to move their head office from Crystal Palace to a more central location, while looking to save costs by sharing a property.

"Crystal Palace is a bit out of the way," Foster said, "and we want to be much more in view. We want to be alongside other major sporting organisations at the centre of things."

That aspiration, for Commonwealth Games England, goes beyond geography.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames