Purely political: Joydeep Karmakar slams CWG 2022 shooting snub

The Indian Olympic shooter has come down severely on the decision taken by the Commonwealth Games Federation to not include shooting in the 2022 games – a sport in which India has won multiple medals previously.

Indian shooter Joydeep Karmakar called CGF's decision to drop shooting from Birmingham 2022 unfortunate.

The executive board of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) on Thursday approved the inclusion of women’s cricket, beach volleyball and para table tennis for the Birmingham edition in 2022 while dropping shooting – a decision that Indian shooter Joydeep Karmakar described as a "hundred percent political move."

"This is like a nail in the coffin. Shooting is a sport in which we have received maybe the most medals in multi-discipline events over the last 15-20 years. (It) makes no sense. I would say this is a hundred percent political move," Karmarkar told Sportstar on Friday .

The move by the CGF landed a big blow to India's hopes as it had won 16 medals, including seven golds, at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia.

 

In 2018, CGF chief executive officer David Grevemberg announced that shooting would not be a part of Birmingham 2022, but made it clear that the sport wasn't completely being scrapped. Shooting would continue to be an optional sport, with the decision of inclusion reserved by the host.

Former sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore had written to the CGF in 2018 urging it to retain the sport in the CWG programme for 2022.

National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh wanted the Indian government to boycott the quadrennial games if shooting was dropped from the programme citing logistical issues.

"That would be his (Raninder Singh's) emotions talking, and, to be honest, maybe he is right. After everything the sport has got for the country, this is unfortunate," Karmakar said.

India has traditionally done well in the sport, which has been part of every Commonwealth Games since 1966 except the 1970 edition in Edinburgh.

Archery is another sport that didn't make the cut.