The Commonwealth Games’ irrelevance

The state of the CWG begs a much larger question: Is it time to bury the Commonwealth Games, once and for all?

The 2026 edition of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) has been rescued by Glasgow. The Scottish city agreed to host a downsized version after original host Victoria (Australia) pulled out, saying the Games were “all cost and no benefit”, and Singapore and Malaysia looked the other way. Glasgow wants only 10 sports, perhaps taking care of the “cost” part of the problem. But what about “benefit”? It appears there is none.

The state of the CWG begs a much larger question: Is it time to bury the Commonwealth Games, once and for all?

India, the biggest economy and market in the Commonwealth nations, has lost the bulk of its medal-winning chances with wrestling, shooting, badminton, table tennis and hockey randomly culled from the list of events. The money its athletes and supporters could have pulled in is, therefore, not enough of a draw at the time of choosing what sports to keep and what to discard. This is just a small part of the problem. The state of the CWG begs a much larger question: Is it time to bury the Commonwealth Games, once and for all?

The British Empire Games, first organised in the 1930s to project a united front to the colonies at a time when the sun was starting to set on the Empire, was rechristened the Commonwealth Games in 1978. It was a bad idea then, and it’s a worse idea now — with countries moving on from their colonial past, not looking to hold on to it. Also, since this is a forced concept, the top stars almost invariably sit out of the CWG because they have bigger competitions to focus on — Olympics, World Championships, continental events such as the Asian Games, and the global circuits of every individual sport. So, there was no Usain Bolt in Delhi 2010, no Lee Chong Wei in 2014, no Tour de France champion Chris Froome in 2018, and no Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra in 2022.

The standard of competition is below par; the fan interest is low; the cost is hard to justify; and the concept of the Commonwealth no longer exists. So, with nothing going for it, why is the CWG still a thing?