2022 Commonwealth Games Organizers will feel lucky that the third biggest multi-sport event is set to start in Birmingham on Thursday without being hit by the pandemic. The Games – representing 2.5 billion people from 72 countries and territories once ruled by the then British Empire – have been staged over the years amid anti-colonial sentiments and the huge costs involved in organizing such an event. But the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has insisted that the sport – with its diversity that includes India with 1.3 billion people and Niue with a population of nearly 2,000 – has entered an era of renewed relevance. Underscoring this, Birmingham, which replaced Durban as the host city and is set to accommodate 6,500 athletes and officials by integrating 19 sports and eight para-sports, has highlighted the uniqueness of this latest edition . The introduction of women’s T20 cricket, 3×3 basketball and mixed synchronized swimming will be among the new features for the first carbon neutral games to be held on an estimated budget of around £800 million.
India, which has not dropped out of the top five since 2002, has fielded over 200 athletes in 19 different sports and para-sports. Nevertheless, the Gold Coast may see a sharp drop in the country’s collection, which had 66 medals in the previous edition as there are no shootings, which contributed 16 medals in 2018. The removal of shooting from the 2022 edition and the absence of wrestling (another discipline that earned India several medals for India) from the 2026 edition has not gone down well with the Indian sporting fraternity. When shooting was left out of the 2022 schedule, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) threatened to boycott the event. A compromise formula, under which shooting and archery were to be held separately in Chandigarh, could not be implemented due to the pandemic. In a recent meeting with CGF President Dame Louise Martin, top IOA officials requested the inclusion of shooting and wrestling in the 2026 edition. India will currently depend on its wrestlers, lifters, shuttlers, boxers, paddlers and squash players to win medals. In the absence of Olympic champion and World Championships silver medalist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India will be expected to supply the likes of steeplechaser Avinash Sable, long jumper M. Sreeshankar and javelin thrower Annu Rani. Doing well in athletics would be something of a pride for India, which faced embarrassment after three athletes tested positive for banned substances. Hockey players and women cricketers, who have won accolades for their impressive performance in the Tokyo Olympics, will also provide hope to sports fans.