Will see what needs to be done to ensure interest of Indian players: Thakur

Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur is looking forward to taking important steps in order to get sporting disciplines like shooting and wrestling back on the list for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2026 which will be played in Victoria in Australia.

In the initial list released by CWG authorities, sporting disciplines like archery, shooting and wrestling were not included which means if these sports are not there then India's medals tally is not going to be very high as it was in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

In Commonwealth Games, 2018 India bagged 16 medals in shooting including seven gold, four silver and five bronze while in wrestling India won 12 medals which includes five gold, three silver and four bronze."Sports Ministry would like to ask IOA as to what was the reason that shooting and wrestling were not made a part of Commonwealth Games 2026 and who went to take part in the meeting when this decision was taken. In which situation this decision was taken. After getting all the details we will see what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that the interest of Indian players is not hampered," said Sports Minister Anurag Thakur while interacting with the media.

The highly-anticipated second edition of the Khelo India University Games 2021 is set to kick off with the opening ceremony on Sunday. The Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu will declare the second edition of the Khelo India University Games open at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru. Governor of Karnataka Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitaraman, Union Minister Of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur, Minister of State, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Nisith Pramanik will be the Guests of Honours.

"Khelo India University Games is all set to start tomorrow. In the evening at 4 PM Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the Games. From 190 Universities around 3900 athletes will participate in it. This is PM Modi's initiative to provide a platform to sports. Be it Khelo India Youth Games or Khelo India University Games if you see in all the countries through University Games the University going players have done the work of winning the medal for their country. Even we are trying that out students of colleges, professional colleges when they go they should not leave sports and showcase their talent and motivate the youth," said Anurag Thakur.

KIUG 2021 was delayed by a year due to the pandemic, will see around 390 athletes from over 190 universities compete for the top prize in 20 disciplines.