Six of the 12 sports activities through which India received a medal on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games have been axed from the 2026 version. Sports activities the place India managed podium finishes in Birmingham however might be omitted from the Glasgow Video games are badminton, cricket, hockey, squash, desk tennis and wrestling.
Another sports activities through which India have raked in medals previously editions however which weren’t a part of Birmingham, like capturing and archery, additionally stay excluded from the Commonwealth Video games ‘Lite’, the place solely 10 sports activities will characteristic attributable to cost-saving measures. The Video games will happen from July 23 to August 2, 2026.
In an announcement, Glasgow CWG organisers stated the sports activities programme will embody athletics and para-athletics, boxing, bowls and para-bowls, swimming and para-swimming, inventive gymnastics, observe biking and para-track biking, netball, weightlifting and para-powerlifting, judo, and three×3 basketball and three×3 wheelchair basketball.
It added ‘there might be round 3,000 of one of the best athletes competing from as much as 74 Commonwealth nations and territories.’
Whereas badminton has been performed in each version of the CWG since 1966, squash and hockey have been part of the programme since 1998. Desk Tennis has featured at each Video games since 2002. The choice additionally marks a uncommon incidence of no racquet sport being included in a multi-discipline occasion.
On the 2022 CWG, India received 61 medals, together with 22 gold. Wrestling (12), boxing and desk tennis (7 every), badminton (6), hockey and squash (2 every), and cricket (1) accounted for greater than half of the medals – 37.
The rejigging of the sports activities programme will severely have an effect on India’s tally, on condition that aside from athletics and para-athletics, boxing and weightlifting, the nation doesn’t have robust gold medal contenders.
One of many main causes for a curtailed programme is that Glasgow stepped in as a last-minute substitute as part of a rescue deal to make sure the CWG came about in 2026.