India’s shooting star Jaspal Rana has rued the exclusion of the sport from the Commonwealth Games 2022, which is scheduled from July 28 to August 8, 2022. During an interview, Rana slammed the organizers for hurting the country’s chances.
India’s top-five standing at the CWG will be threatened in the shooting’s absence in Birmingham. While India remains far from becoming a sporting superpower, the CWG has been a happy hunting ground for the largest nation in the Commonwealth.
A top-five finisher since the 2002 edition, India has relied a lot on shooting, which was controversially dropped from the Games program.
And the 1998 and 2002 CWG gold medallists said the organizers have removed shooting to impact India.
“In a larger way, it [boycotting] will not be fair to other sports. CWG is a very big platform for other sports. For the country, it holds a far greater significance as whatever we started, we started with CWG and then the Asian Games, and World Championships and that’s how we reached the Olympics. So boycotting the Games would not have been fair. We should have put our foot forward and let them know that this is not the right thing to do. The government and the federation have to play a bigger role in this. Our PM Narendra Modi, if he wants, he can do a lot in this aspect,” Rana explained.
The opening ceremony at the Alexander Stadium on Thursday evening will mark the beginning of the sporting extravaganza that remains huge in scale but is fighting to remain relevant.
The Games, set to be the biggest and most expensive sporting event in the UK since the 2012 London Olympics, have had to deal with the adverse impact of COVID-19 though the budget remains at 778 million pounds to date.
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