The Commonwealth Game (CWG) is a major international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth, held every four years. The Games served as the necessary platform for many countries, and particularly a country like India, to showcase their competitive talent on an international scale.
The 2026 edition, based in Glasgow, Scotland, has come under heavy fire for a decision to not include some of the sports within which player network competes most avidly, with shooting and badminton as probably the most watched sport in CWG. And the move has understandably caused a stir, and there are wider implications, especially for Indian athletes who have dominated these sports.
What Will be Decided and What it all Means
A decision was made by the organizing group for the 2026 Commonwealth Games to cut costs and streamline logistics, which led to many sports being dropped from consideration. Even though doing so might have been a logistical stopgap measure, it also meant ditching two of the sports that form important components for other countries like India to keep their medal tally rising and sporting prestige intact in the nation. Shooting, wrestling, and hockey have been popular sports in India too, but these are the fields where, for a long time, India has dominated, which helped India to maintain their ranking.
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This exclusion from the Games becomes a strong cause of damage because India has a strong track record in these disciplines. The contribution of Indian wrestlers at the CWG 22 had been pretty significant, as they contributed a big total of 12 medals to the country's overall fourth-place finish in the medal standings. Similarly, badminton and table tennis players too have been one of the most productive sports for India. For athletes who put in years of their lives to prepare for a global stage, not having these events present at the Galsglow 26 can be considered a big hindrance.
Impact on Indian athletes
This exclusion of important sports hits directly at the athletes who were preparing for the 2026 Games. Many Indian athletes, particularly in shooting and wrestling, had pinned their hopes on CWG 2026 as an avenue to prove themselves and get international experience. These competitions serve as stepping stones toward larger goals like the Olympics and the World Championships.
1. Shooting: India has enjoyed extraordinary success in shooting at the Commonwealth Games as well as in the Olympics. The sport has given to the country some of its most prized athletes, including Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Rythm Sangwan and Manu Bhaker. For these athletes, the Commonwealth Games are a godsend opportunity to compete at the highest level and to inspire future generations. The absence of shooting in 2026, therefore, denies the shooters of the future an important chance to gain experience in a truly competitive setting.
2. Wrestling: wrestling is deeply ingrained in Indian sports culture, especially in rural India. Success by athletes like Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat has lifted hopes and raised the profile of the sport within India. Indian wrestlers won six medals in testimony to the country's prowess in this discipline at the 2022 Birmingham CWG. It goes without saying that by keeping wrestling out of the CWG 26, Indian athletes are deprived of the gold to carry on with the sport and gain eyeballs for the sport.
3. Badminton: Indian shuttlers have performed exceptionally well in Olympics as well as international events. Badminton is becoming one of the popular sports in India, as India has won 6 medals in CWG 22.
Long-term impact on Indian sports
Once these sports are excluded, there is more at stake than medals. CWG is like a launching pad for any sport, as events excite youngsters into the sport. For India, where sports infrastructure in shooting, wrestling, badminton, and hockey in general is at nascent stages, the absence of the disciplines from such a prestigious international event could dampen grassroots interest.
This in turn can affect the sponsorship and funding of these sports within India, since companies and governments might be more reluctant to invest in sports without the visibility and medal prospects that the Commonwealth Games provide but for young and aspiring athletes, it means a part of the fear of fewer chances at top training and international competitions, which in turn could stifle the pipeline of sports infrastructure in the country altogether.
Look to the Future
The exclusion of shooting, wrestling, badminton, hockey, table tennis, squash, and cricket from CWG 2026, though setbacks, serves to build a focus for India's sports administrators on how to understand that probably there are other sports for growth elsewhere. Indian athletes will now have to train their sights on other major competitions—the Asian Games, the World Championships, and the Olympics. While this action is a serious blow to the concerned sports fraternity, there is still hope for their reinstatement in future editions of the Commonwealth Games.
In the short term, Indian sport federations should ensure that protection and facilitation extended to athletes at all levels are an ongoing concern in ensuring competitiveness at the global level. Much has been attained by the country in these sports, and it should not lose the steam it gained because of the exclusion in this one big event. This, however, does not mark the end of it all for Indian athletes, as the exclusion of key sports from the 2026 Commonwealth Games but some sports are also present where India can perform much better to showcase that the face of India is resilient, and with strategic planning, it can continue to strengthen in sporting achievements and produce a force recognized internationally.
With inputs from agencies
Image Source: Multiple agencies
*The views expressed are personal to the author and do not reflect the platform's opinion of the same.
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