Indian men's hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh termed the decision to exclude hockey from the 2026 Commonwealth Games 'unfortunate' and revealed that his side was aiming for gold in the tournament. On the eve of taking on reigning world champions Germany in a bilateral series at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium here, Craig Fulton and Harmanpreet, head coach of the Indian men's team, addressed a pre-match press conference as they learned about the development.
“I need time to think about that. It is what it is. It's a shame (decision), and at the same time I think about today and what will happen tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. That's for later, that's for another moment to find out to come, discuss the consequences and what happens next,” Fulton said.
Harmanpreet echoed the same sentiments and added, “I have just come to know about it. I am also on the same page. We were aiming for a gold medal in that tournament but it is unfortunate to hear this news now. It is not in our hands and we I can't think about it and at the moment the two games (against Germany) are important for us.”
India has never won the gold medal in men's hockey in CWG despite reaching the finals in 2010, 2014 and 2022, losing to Australia on all three occasions.
The women's hockey team won India's only gold medal in CWG in 2002 in Manchester. Interestingly, the men's team did not participate in the 2002 edition.
The 23rd edition of the CWG will be held in Glasgow from July 23 to August 2, 2026 and will include just 10 sports, excluding hockey, cricket, wrestling, table tennis, badminton and squash. The recordings, which were also axed from the Birmingham 2022 CWG programme, are still unavailable. When Glasgow hosted the CWG in 2014, there were 19 sports on the programme.
In most of the sports that were dropped from the Games, India won multiple medals in Birmingham.
India won 61 medals, including 22 gold medals, in the last edition of the Games. Of their total number, 12 came from wrestling, seven each from boxing and table tennis, six from badminton, two each from hockey and squash and one from cricket – more than half of the total medals.
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