The sport of Hockey will not be a feature of the Commonwealth Games 2026 after the organisers announced that the upcoming edition of the quadrennial in Glasgow will witness only a total of 10 disciplines.
The previous iteration of the CWG saw athletes compete across 19 sports, but the showpiece set to be staged by Scotland, following the withdrawal of Victoria citing escalating costs, is poised to be a watered-down event after the eleventh-hour shift in the hosting rights.
Head coach of the Indian hockey team Craig Fulton and skipper Harmanpreet Singh voiced how unfortunate the exclusion was ahead of the side’s clash against Germany at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi in a bilateral series.
“I need time to think about that but it is what it is, unfortunate,” Fulton said
“And at the same time I really just thinking about today, you know, and what’s going to happen tomorrow and the day after,” he said reflecting on his mindset ahead of the games against the World Champions.
“So that’s further down the line. That’s for another time with bigger, bigger planning ramifications and what happens then and what happens, I don’t know.
“We’re looking forward to playing Germany tomorrow,” he added.
Harmanpreet seconded the South African’s opinions and said it wasn’t something in their control to begin with.
“I just got to know,” the captain said.
“CWG is an important tournament for us, we wanted to win gold there in 2026,” he revealed.
“This is unfortunate news but this is not in our hands. We can’t do much about it,” the 28-year-old said.
“We can only focus on what’s in front of us. We are only focused on these two matches against Germany,” he added.
The FIH assured that the exclusion of the sport from CWG 2026 was and exception and was confident over the inclusion of the sport in the future.
Other sports including Badminton, and Shooting, which have traditionally been India’s strong suits were also excluded from the event.
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