2030 CWG coming to Ahmedabad, cool — but India has BTDT before

Come 26 November, the general assembly of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will give its seal of approval to Ahmedabad as host of the 2030 Games — which is pretty much a formality. The executive board of the Games recommended the largest city of Gujarat as host on 15 October, Wednesday, which is being seen as a prelude to India hosting the 2036 Olympics (provided we realises those ambitions).

Those in the know, however, feel that there is a gulf of difference between hosting the CWG — seen as a legacy of British colonialism that is losing relevance with every passing edition — and the ‘greatest show on earth’.

Incidentally, Ahmedabad and Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, were the only two interested candidates for the 2030 CWG event, and India’s willingness to host the centenary edition will certainly take a big load off the apex body.

A look at how two recent editions had to be juggled around will explain why. The 2022 edition was originally scheduled to be held in Durban, South Africa — before they pulled out due to financial constraints, forcing Birmingham to step in as a late replacement. The build-up to the 2026 CWG saw even more hiccups: it was originally scheduled to be held in Victoria, Australia — before they withdrew, leaving Glasgow (hosts of the 2014 Games) to ride in to the rescue.

However, on that second occasion, time and budgetary constraints meant that Scotland could only offer a pared-down edition, with only 10 disciplines. This will mean India’s medals tally taking a beating next year as in Birmingham, they had finished a creditable fourth with 61 medals (22 gold) but a number of disciplines which are their strong points like badminton or wrestling have been struck off the roster.

Come 2030, however, it should be a full-course CWG, with India well-equipped to play proud hosts.

No doubt hosting of a multi-discipline sporting event of this magnitude in a growing economy is bound to invite criticism from several quarters because of the financial implications — especially as history does not offer a precedent of a country bidding to host back-to-back CWG and Olympic Games. The ruling dispensation, however, sees this as a twin opportunity to leverage national pride through sport and also carve out a place for Ahmedabad as the de facto sporting capital of India (at the expense of actual national capital New Delhi).  

It’s not difficult to see all the effort to put aside or to shade the capital’s legacy of having hosted the 2010 CWG as well as two editions of the Asian Games (the inaugural one in 1951 and then again 1982), while Gujarat is peddled as the preferred choice for the global audience.

For all the talk of 2010 CWG being rife with corruption charges, delays in building the infrastructure, etc., a number of insiders from the country’s sporting ecosystem that National Herald spoke to gave Delhi of yore a thumbs-up.

‘’The 2010 edition was one of the most well organised CWG I have been a part of,’’ said Pulella Gopichand, the Dronacharya and former All England champion shuttler.

That 2010 event was the first time the event took place in India — and the hosts turned in their best-ever performance, finishing second in the overall medals tally with a haul of 101.

Yet a sense of history, surely a welcome quality for a nation hoping to host two of the foremost global sporting events over the next decade, seems missing so far from the current dispensation.

One of those who joined the dots most clearly for Ahmedabad was external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, with his now-deleted tweet of a few hours ago on 16 October:

Taking to his X handle, union home minister Amit Shah — who is overseeing the 2036 Olympics bid — echoed the EAM, using indeed very similar terms: ‘’Raising world class infrastructure and raising a nationwide pool of sports talent, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji has made India a marvel of a sports destination.”

Interestingly, two of the countries bidding for the 2036 Olympics are set to host major showpieces in 2030 — India the CWG and Qatar the Asian Games. Going by International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Kirsty Coventry’s words, the decision on 2036 will have been taken by then.

Hence, no prizes for guessing that the clock has begun ticking for India!