NEW DELHI: Hockey turned one of many a number of distinguished sports activities to be axed from the 2026 Commonwealth Video games as hosts Glasgow targeted on chopping prices. The Scottish metropolis, which had staged the Video games in 2014, stepped in at a late stage after the Victorian authorities in Australia deserted plans because of rising prices.
In a bid to maintain the Video games to fewer stadiums and with out the necessity to construct infrastructure, the hosts culled the programme to 10 sports activities with hockey, wrestling, cricket and diving getting the chop.
Hockey had been one of many mainstays within the Commonwealth Video games since making its debut in 1998. Australia have dominated the game on the quadrennial occasion successful seven golds in males and 4 in ladies. India, in the meantime, clinched three silver medals within the males’s occasion and three, together with a gold in 2002, within the ladies’s.
“Absence of hockey on the Commonwealth Video games shouldn’t be an excellent signal. The game was rising in India and globally so it got here as a blow. However we do produce other huge tournaments such because the World Cup, Olympics and so forth. the place we must always focus extra now,” mentioned former drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh in a dialog with TimesofIndia.com.
“It was good preparation earlier than the World Cup for groups like Australia, England, India. And this was good preparation alongside observe and take a look at matches,” added the 2014 Commonwealth Video games medallist.
The writing was all the time on the wall. Glasgow Video games organisers had proposed 4 venues — Commonwealth Area and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Scotstoun Stadium (rugby and squash amenities), Tollcross Worldwide Swimming Centre and Scottish Occasions Campus. None of those venues have a hockey turf.
Hockey’s omission is also all the way down to the truth that the Video games, to be held from July 23 to August 2, come near the FIH World Cup that’s scheduled two weeks later from August 15 to 30 in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands.
For Indian athletes, Commonwealth Video games offered not only a launchpad in preparation for future occasions but additionally an avenue for medal winners to assert authorities jobs and prize cash.
“For Indian athletes it was an excellent platform to get monetary assist, be it any sport. Our insurance policies are such that should you win medals on the Commonwealth Video games then you definitely get jobs and prize cash. However now that this choice is made, we will solely guess why hockey has been omitted,” mentioned Rupinder.
Later, the Federation of Worldwide Hockey (FIH) clarified that the choice to not embrace the game in Glasgow was a one-off.
“While the Commonwealth Video games Federation (CGF) needed to verify a brand new host for the 2026 Video games in a brief timeframe after the withdrawal from the Victorian Authorities and while we’ve taken word that the brand new idea for 2026 has been downsized, with a core providing of solely 10 sports activities, we’re all of the extra upset by the CGF’s choice to not have hockey on the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Video games programme,” the FIH mentioned in a press release.
“That our sport has been performed at each Commonwealth Video games since 1998, one thing we’re very happy with. With a discount from 19 to 10 sports activities in comparison with the final version of the Video games, hockey is due to this fact in the identical state of affairs as eight different sports activities,” the assertion continued.
“Nevertheless, the CGF has been very clear of their numerous exchanges with FIH that this choice is outstanding, and associated to the difficult nature of this particular version of the Commonwealth Video games.
“CGF has asserted that this choice won’t influence the inclusion of hockey into future editions of the Commonwealth Video games and that FIH stays a key companion and pal in each the historical past and way forward for the Commonwealth motion,” a FIH spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
“As CGF has confirmed that hockey stays an essential sport for the Federation, its members, and the Commonwealth motion, we welcome their invitation to debate additional alternatives for hockey with the Commonwealth motion sooner or later,” the assertion mentioned.
