The day-long, multiple rounds of meetings between the visiting Commonwealth Games Federation delegation, Indian Olympic Association officials and Union Sports Ministry officials concluded with no concrete solution to India’s threat to boycott the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in protest against shooting's exclusion, in sight.
All the parties, however, said they were looking for a solution for the return of shooting to the CWG 2022 edition.
For the first time since 1974, shooting has been excluded from the Commonwealth Games roster due to logistical issues. Shooting has been India's top sport in the CWG in terms of medals, and its exclusion has not gone down well with the IOA.
Speaking to the media in the evening, IOA president Narinder Dhruv Batra said: “The term boycott I had used was not appropriate. It should have been withdrawal. It was a successful and fruitful meeting (with the CGF delegation) but the proposal of withdrawal from 2022 CWG still stands.
"We made the proposal (of boycott) nearly six months back. Now, we will take into consideration the discussions we had today with the CGF officials. We will go back to our Executive Committee and then to the General Assembly and take a decision," the IOA chief said in the press conference, addressed along with Commonwealth Games Federation President Louise Martin and CEO David Grevemberg and IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.
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The CGF delegation also held an hour-long meeting with Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and his team. Reportedly, the sports minister did not discuss the boycott or withdrawal from the 2022 CWG. The minister had, in the past, played down IOA’s call for boycott, saying that it's too early to take such a drastic step.
CGF officials said that it was necessary to hold discussions openly with the IOA, and that a solution for re-inclusion of shooting was still being looked at. “It was important for us to come, discuss and address the 2022 (boycott and shooting ) solution,” Grevemberg said. “We are working on it, on different scenarios.” When asked whether they had found any solution to the matter, he said, “We don't have a solution today, no. We need to go back to the drawing board, and jointly work out a solution.”
One of the options discussed was to make the Commonwealth Shooting Championships part of the CWG 2022 programme. Batra, however, made it clear that in that case, “CGF will have to include the medals won at this event in the final medal tally of the Games and these results to be included in rankings and records”.
This, however, will have to be decided in consultation with the International Shooting Sport Federation and Commonwealth Shooting Federation. IOA and CGF officials said they will take up the issues with ISSF in coming months to arrive at a feasible solution. Batra will hold meetings along with CGF and ISSF officials at the ISSF General Assembly meeting in Munich next month.
The ISSF had earlier proposed funding the upgradation of the shooting range in Bisley and take care of other costs as a way of re-including shooting in the Birmingham edition but CGF said the decision lies with the CWG Organising Committee of Birmingham. “We must remember that the vast majority of the Games is funded via public money.” Grevemberg pointed out that shooting was made an optional sport by the CGF in its General Assembly meeting in 2015 and it’s up to the local organising committee to decide which optional sports should be included in its competition programme—with affordability being a key deciding factor. He reminded that even CWG 2010 in New Delhi had decided to opt for archery and tennis.
CGF officials were of the view that Bisley range needed massive upgradation and the funding that ISSF had proposed was not enough to cover the costs.
Batra, meanwhile, clarified that his earlier comments, wherein he described CWG as a “waste of time and energy”, was in the context of the Games happening too close to Asian Games in the past, with a gap of merely 30-70 days between the two major sporting events. “What is my priority—Olympic Games. Winning medals is the ultimate aim. Should our athletes not be focusing on that? The 32-day gap between Birmingham CWG and Asian Games was too less. Asian Games, too, is important for Olympic qualification.”
Martin praised the “legacy” created by 2010 CWG in New Delhi, appreciating the multiple sport facilities created for the same at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium. Her team will be visiting NIS Patiala tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mehta delighted the visitors by announcing that India would look to host the 2026 CWG Games, even as President Batra refused to confirm his colleague’s statement.
