CWG 2026: Why Are Cricket, Hockey, Badminton, Wrestling and Table Tennis Missing from Glasgow Games?

The Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow has been scaled down after Victoria withdrew due to soaring costs. Cricket, hockey, badminton, wrestling and table tennis were dropped, while India's 125-member contingent eyes success in the 10-sport event.

Commonwealth Games 2026 Medala

Image Credit: AFP

The Commonwealth Games 2026 is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. The 23rd edition of the quadrennial multi-sport event runs from July 23 to August 2, 2026, where more than 3000 athletes from 74 nations and territories compete across a streamlined program of 10 core sports.

The CWG 2026 was supposed to take place in Victoria, Australia, but the event was shifted to Glasgow after the Australian state withdrew in July 2023 due to soaring projected costs that blew out from an initial estimate of AUD 2.6 billion to more than AUD 6 billion. Glasgow stepped in after reaching an agreement with Commonwealth Sport to host a scaled-down edition of the Games, using existing venues and infrastructure to keep costs under control.

From India, 125 athletes across 13 sports disciplines (including para-sports), featuring 77 male and 48 female competitors, will participate in the event. Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, and Lovlina Borgohain will headline India's contingent as the country aims for a strong medal haul at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Why Are Five Major Sports Not Part of CWG 2026?

As Commonwealth Games 2026 organizers were forced to radically restructure the event following the unexpected withdrawal of the original host state of Victoria due to soaring financial blowouts, Glasgow stepped in with a strict, budget-conscious rescue plan. Initially, CWG was 19-sport lineup.

However, the soaring project costs and the resulting emergency rescue bid by Glasgow necessitated a dramatically reduced program, dropping sports that require new venue setups and sport-specific turf installations, and instead relying on existing, locally available facilities within the streamlined four-venue infrastructure.

Since cricket, hockey, wrestling, badminton and table tennis require specialised venues, dedicated infrastructure or multiple competition fields, they were excluded from Glasgow's scaled-down four-venue model. Their omission was aimed at keeping the Commonwealth Games 2026 financially sustainable, logistically manageable and focused on using existing facilities.

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Cricket and hockey require dedicated outdoor turf fields and sprawling stadium complexes, whereas badminton, wrestling, and table tennis demand extensive indoor court configurations, specialised flooring, or multi-arena training setups that could not be accommodated within Glasgow's strictly condensed four-venue footprint.

If these five sports were integrated, the cost of players’ accommodation would skyrocket due to the need to expand athlete villages across multiple distant locations, violating a core mandate of utilising a single, centralised, and existing accommodation footprint to ensure the entire rescue budget remained intact.

How Did India Perform at Commonwealth Games?

Despite the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026 being scaled down to a 10-sport event, India has sent a streamlined 125-strong contingent across 13 disciplines (including para-sports). The CWG has been India’s strongest hunting ground for medals in recent editions of the quadrennial multi-sport event.

Since its participation at the CWG in 1934, except in 1950, 1962, and 1986, when it sat out the event, India has won 564 medals, including 203 gold, 190 silver, and 171 bronze. Their best medal haul in the 2010 edition of the Commonwealth Games, where they achieved the highest medal tally on home soil, winning 101 medals, including 38 gold, cementing the nation's status as a dominant powerhouse in the history of the competition.

In the Birmingham CWG 2022, India won 61 medals in total, consisting of 22 gold, 16 silver, and 23 bronze medals, finishing fourth in the overall medal standings. In the ongoing edition of the event, India will look to make their mark despite the absence of medal-heavy disciplines, as the 11-day multi-sport showcase officially gets underway in Scotland.

The likes of athletics, weightlifting, and boxing will carry the burden of India’s medal expectations at the Glasgow Games, providing seasoned stars like Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, and Lovlina Borgohain a vital platform to shine on the opening day of competition.