By Tay Shi'an

O the Asian Youth Games (AYG) are ending in two days' time.

If your reaction is 'Really, ah?', 'What's that?' or 'So?', join the mass of oblivious, uncaring faces.

I have to confess - I'm one of them. I haven't ventured out to watch a single match.

Okay scrap that. I haven't even put in the effort to see the highlight shows, or tune in to the dedicated AYG cable TV channels. (I found out about them only while doing research for this column.)

It's not that I don't care about sports or have no team (Singapore) spirit.

I've woken up at 3am to watch Champions League matches, bought tickets to watch Liverpool play at our National Stadium, and gathered in front of the office TV with colleagues to watch our table tennis gals battle it out during the Beijing Olympics.

And as a 16-year-old, I screamed myself hoarse with hundreds of schoolmates at the National Schools swimming or track meets.

But I just haven't been able to work up that same level of enthusiasm for the AYG.

Sure, the athletes represent Singapore. But they are the junior team. How many fans would want to watch Liverpool's youth team play against Man U's reserve team?

Even the organisers have downplayed the competitive element, billing the event instead as a giant 'friendly' to give our young athletes exposure.

Neither is the AYG 'grassroots' enough. School meets inspire crazy chanting of school cheers again and again and again. Then there's ecstatic hugging of fellow schoolgirls in pinafores you have never met before when your team crosses the finish line first.

But the Singapore youth athletes don't have a ready base of such focused and rabid supporters.

Having said that, does it really matter that only some people care about the AYG? Let's be honest. It was always clear that the AYG was meant to be a test-run for the Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2010.

It doesn't matter even if no one is watching. All the better, actually. Then fewer people would have seen all the screw-ups, and all will be ironed out (hopefully) by the time the 'real thing' (YOG) comes around.

Can you imagine the world watching when there are sensitive screw-ups, like the religious headscarf basketball debacle?

Logistics screw-ups, like not-ready rooms when teams arrive after a long flight, and the last-minute time-slot swap of two football matches, of which supporters and the media were not told, cheesing off fans who actually bothered to show up?

No pre-game access to athletes until reporters made a ruckus? Clueless volunteers at entrances?

Canteen volunteers who can't tell you what's in the fried rice? (Surely, many of the teens would ask the same question, for curiosity's sake if not for religious or dietary purposes).

So organisers, this whole show has been for you.

Please, listen to what the athletes, journalists and spectators have to say. Actively seek their opinions. I'm sure YOG 2010 will be a good show.

This article was first published in The New Paper.