Bengaluru: India won 61 medals at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Thirty of these came from six sports: badminton, wrestling, table tennis, cricket, hockey, and squash. None of these disciplines will feature in the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The withdrawal of the original host city, Victoria, in 2023 over cost concerns led to Glasgow stepping in as last-minute hosts, just two years before the Games. Instead of the 22 sports that were supposed to be part of the Games in Victoria, the stripped-down 2026 programme in Glasgow will include only 10 sports: athletics and para-athletics, swimming and para swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para cycling, netball, 3x3 basketball, boxing, judo, bowls and para bowls, and weightlifting and para powerlifting.

Battling questions of relevance and feasibility for a while now, the Games can seem like an anachronism. The budget-friendly, 2026 lite version throws up the question of whether this is indeed what the future looks like. There are few takers for the Commonwealth Games and five of its last six editions have been held in either Australia or the United Kingdom. In 2022, the Australian state of Victoria was announced as host for 2026. In July 2023, the Victorian government stated that, given the projected rise in gross cost from an initial $2.6 billion to $6 billion, it no longer made economic sense. The Commonwealth Games Federation scrambled to find a host, with countries like Malaysia turning down the offer due to costs, before Glasgow turned up as saviour. Victoria paid $380 million in compensation for pulling out, of which nearly $200 million has been allocated to Glasgow to host the Games.

Where does the exclusion of several medal-winning sports leave Indian athletes though? Understandably, disappointed.

“As a kid, a Commonwealth Games medal was always first on my bucket list,” G Sathiyan told HT, “It’s the Games where you announce your arrival, and find the confidence to take on the world, a stepping stone to your Olympic dreams. It’s baffling that a sport like table tennis that is played so widely has been left out. I’m sad and shocked that this is happening… For younger players, it’s an even bigger blow I suppose. The only time I’ve perhaps cried on court was after my 2018 Commonwealth Games singles medal.”

The 2018 Games was a crucial turning point for Indian table tennis. India won gold in the men’s and women’s team events and Manika Batra soared to stardom with a women’s singles gold – a first for the country.

Terming the decision to axe badminton “deeply appalling, disappointing and lacking clear reasoning”, BAI chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said that it “appears to be aimed at stunting the progress of nations like India”. Badminton has been part of the Games since 1966. “The reasons for its exclusion must be scrutinised and discussed with the relevant stakeholders,” he said. “We cannot allow such shortsighted decisions to undermine the progress we have tirelessly achieved.”

Indian men’s hockey team coach Craig Fulton called the exclusion of hockey “unfortunate”, while captain Harmanpreet Singh said that winning gold at the 2026 Commonwealth Games had been a “target for the team.”

Shooting, which was left out of the 2022 Games for the first time since 1974, was expected to make a comeback in Victoria 2026. Instead, it has been iced for the second Games in a row. Historically, shooting has been one of India’s biggest medal-rakers, contributing to 63 of India’s 181 Commonwealth Games gold medals up to 2018. “I have been reassured by the CGF leadership that any decision not to include shooting in the 2026 programme will not set a precedent for future Games,” ISSF president Luciano Rossi said in a statement.

Agony over axed sports and lost medals aside, the Glasgow Games should serve as a wake-up call for India to get their act together in core sports like athletics and swimming, if they are to do better at the Olympics. While independent India has two Olympic medals (from one athlete) in athletics, the country didn’t have any swimmer making the ‘A’ or ‘B’ qualifying marks for Paris.

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