Cricket, Hockey And Wrestling Among Top Sports Dropped From Commonwealth Games 2026

Cricket will not be part of the Commonwealth Games 2026. This comes as a big setback to India as they were one of the hot favourites to win a medal. Not just cricket, but other sports such as badminton, hockey, squash, table tennis, and wrestling, where India were a medal contender, have also been dropped from the Commonwealth Games 2026.

The 23rd edition of the tournament, which is set to be held from July 23 to August 2 in Glasgow, will feature only 10 sports in a bid to make the event more budget-friendly. The decision was taken after Scotland stepped in to host the 2026 Games after Australia withdrew due to rising costs.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games organisers revealed that the event will include athletics and para-athletics, boxing, bowls and para-bowls, swimming and para-swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para-track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para-powerlifting, judo, and 3×3 basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball. Around 3000 athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations will take part in the Glasgow games.

This will be the first time since 1966 that badminton won't be part of the Commonwealth Games. Squash and hockey have been part of the Commonwealth Games since 1998 while table tennis has featured in every edition of the tournament since 2002. This will be one of the rare Commonwealth Games where no racket sport will take place.

India won 61 medals, including 22 gold medals at the 2022 CWG. Wrestling (12), boxing and table tennis (7 each), badminton (6), hockey and squash (2 each), and cricket (1) accounted for more than half of the medals – 37. The removal of sports such as cricket, wrestling, hocky, among others are likely to affect India's medals tally as apart from athletics and para-athletics, boxing and weightlifting, the country does not have strong gold medal contenders.

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