Datanomics: India may lose out in watered-down Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2026 will start on July 23 in Scotland, after Victoria (Australia) — the original host of the 2026 CWG — decided to relinquish the hosting rights due to significant cost escalations. To ensure cost effectiveness, Scotland is hosting a watered-down version of the Games with only 10 sporting events. Consequently, major sports such as hockey, badminton, wrestling, shooting, etc have been excluded from the schedule. Among the top countries, India may lose out the most in terms of medals because of this decision.

The excluded sporting events accounted for nearly half of India’s medal tally at the Birmingham CWG in 2022, despite Shooting — one of India's medal-churning event — not being included that year. If we include Shooting in the roster of excluded games, the share of medals from excluded events increases even more: 66.67 per cent in CWG 2018, 66 per cent in CWG 2006, and 58.42 per cent in CWG 2010. For Australia and England, the two most successful countries in the CWG, the excluded sports accounted for 19.55 per cent and 25.57 per cent of their medals, respectively, in CWG 2022. Commonwealth Games has been a costly proposition for the host countries. Barring CWG 2002 in Manchester, commercial revenue has been around 17-28 per cent of the total games-related operating expenditure.