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No badminton, no wrestling, no hockey: Why India’s top Commonwealth medal sports won’t feature at CWG 2026
At the Birmingham Games in 2022, India secured 61 medals, including 22 gold. Half of those medals came from sports that will not feature in Glasgow
India have traditionally thrived at the Commonwealth Games. Since the turn of the century, the country has consistently finished inside the top five and crossed the 50-medal mark in every edition since 2002. Their finest campaign came at home in 2010, when India won 101 medals to finish second in the standings.
At the Birmingham Games in 2022, India secured 61 medals, including 22 gold. More importantly, half of those medals came from sports that will not feature in Glasgow. Badminton (6), cricket (1), hockey (2), squash (2), table tennis (7) and wrestling (12) together accounted for 30 medals, highlighting how heavily India's success has relied on these disciplines.
When the Commonwealth Games return to Glasgow this year, all six sports will be absent, significantly weakening India's medal prospects.
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Which sports are part of CWG 2026?
The Glasgow Games will feature just 10 sports, down from 20 in Birmingham. The programme includes athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, 3x3 basketball, lawn bowls, netball, artistic gymnastics, judo and boxing. Six of those sports—athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, lawn bowls and 3x3 basketball—will also include para events.
Meanwhile, badminton, cricket, hockey, squash, diving, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling, beach volleyball and rugby sevens have all been dropped. India did not compete in beach volleyball, diving or rugby sevens in Birmingham, but the remaining sports form the backbone of India's Commonwealth success and include some of its strongest Olympic disciplines.
Why were these sports removed?
The answer is simple: cost-cutting.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games were originally awarded to Victoria in Australia, but the state withdrew in 2023 after projected costs spiralled. The Commonwealth Games Federation was forced to find a replacement host with less than three years remaining before the event.
Glasgow, which successfully hosted the Games in 2014, stepped in with much of the required infrastructure already in place. Even so, staging a full-scale Commonwealth Games was considered financially unrealistic.
Instead, organisers opted for a leaner version of the event. Competition will be staged across just four venues, while athletes and officials will stay in existing hotels rather than a purpose-built Games Village. The limited infrastructure meant several sports had to be removed from the programme.
How much will India's medal tally suffer?
The impact is likely to be substantial. India sent a 210-member contingent to Birmingham and won 61 medals across 16 sports. Of those, 31 medals came from disciplines that no longer feature in Glasgow—badminton (6), cricket (1), hockey (2), squash (2), table tennis (7) and wrestling (12).
The pattern stretches further back. At the 2018 Gold Coast Games, India collected 12 wrestling medals, eight in table tennis and two in squash. Shooting, which contributed 16 medals that year, had already been dropped from the Birmingham programme because of logistical issues.
Among the sports that remain, boxing yielded seven medals for India in 2022, weightlifting produced 10 and judo added three. However, India's recent Olympic performances in those disciplines have been comparatively modest. Four of the Birmingham boxing medallists failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics, as did two judo medallists, while Mirabai Chanu was India's lone weightlifting representative.
Which Indian stars will miss out?
Olympic medallists such as PV Sindhu and Bajrang Punia, along with the Indian men's hockey team, will all miss one of India's most productive multi-sport competitions.
The absence will also hurt the country's next generation. Squash prodigy Anahat Singh, who represented India in Birmingham at just 14 and has since won two Asian Games bronze medals, would have entered Glasgow as one of India's strongest medal contenders. Instead, her attention now shifts towards the 2026 Asian Games.
The scheduling clash with the FIH Hockey World Cup also deprives India's junior hockey players of a rare opportunity to compete at a major multi-sport event.
India's emerging wrestlers, including Aman Sehrawat, Antim Panghal, Reetika Hooda and Nisha Dahiya, were widely expected to contend for medals in Glasgow. With wrestling missing, their wait for success at a major multi-sport Games continues.
Table tennis is another major casualty. Players such as Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Sharath Kamal, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai have lost an opportunity to add Commonwealth medals to their achievements.
Even athletes like triathlete Pragnya Mohan, who faced an uphill battle for a medal, have lost an important stage to showcase themselves on the international circuit.
What is the financial impact?
For many Indian athletes, a Commonwealth Games medal offers far more than sporting glory. Success at the Games often brings substantial cash rewards from state governments and sporting bodies, while medal winners are frequently considered for government jobs that provide long-term financial security. A podium finish also raises an athlete's profile, improving sponsorship opportunities and commercial value.
With several medal-rich sports absent in Glasgow, and no guarantee of their return before 2030, many athletes will now have to pin their hopes on the Asian Games and Olympics, where competition is considerably tougher. That only increases the pressure on a generation that has suddenly lost one of its biggest pathways to recognition.
