India stands to be among the earliest beneficiaries of what the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) calls 'innovative hosting strategies'. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), led by its boss Raninder Singh, has been at the forefront of an unprecedented proposal, which opens up the way for India to stage the Commonwealth shooting and archery events in the country, four months ahead of the 2022 Birmingham Games. The proposal also states medals won in India will count in the official tally of the Games. Both optional sports were left out by the hosts from the next edition of the Games.
The formal proposal from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will be discussed by the CGF sports committee on January 10, tabled before the CGF executive board on February 20 and 21, and put to a full vote of its 71 member associations. While formal clearance is awaited, the proposal's passage, acceptance and implementation appears to be a near certainty for the resolution it offers both to questions over India's participation and the costs and infrastructure surrounding the conduct of the disciplines.
As organisers of the event, NRAI offers to pay for the food, hotels and travel of the same number of shooters and accompanying officials as in the 2018 Gold Coast Games. "We've kept the cutoff that we'd fund for at 358 athletes and officials," Singh tells ESPN, "Participating nations are free to send more delegates but it should be at their own cost. Our proposal is built around the Commonwealth Games' vision statement of having a more inclusive and flexible program. Shooting is a capital-intensive sport. Our proposal is simple -- without interfering with the rights of the host and to no extra cost to them, either, we are offering to stage these events."
The total cost of hosting the shooting event, which will be entirely borne by the NRAI, is estimated to be around Rs. 10 crores (~US$1.395M). Hosting the archery competition will cost an additional Rs. 3.70 crores (~US$516,200) in expenses, which will be footed by the government. The NRAI, however, has pledged assistance in logistics. "We will likely have a joint opening, plus the hotels, transportation, all of that we can always help with. Infrastructure wise it's just one field that archery needs. Since we are already planning to host one event, making room for another will not be a huge additional burden," he added. The events are likely to be held in New Delhi or Chandigarh on March 14, which serves as the Commonwealth Day.
The Archery Association of India (AAI), however, is itself in trouble, with World Archery suspending the body last August over warring factions carrying out parallel elections in defiance of the guidelines. Currently, the sport is being managed by a transitory committee and according to the Delhi High Court order fresh elections are to take place on January 18. World Archery, though has offered support to India's proposal to host the 2022 archery event adjunct to the Games, recognizing it both for purposes of world records and rankings.
CGF chief executive David Grevemberg is thrilled with the idea of India's proposal. "It's just about thinking smarter and harder on how we can preserve opportunities in sports that may be challenging to host consistently," Grevemberg tells ESPN, "We are not unique in that situation. If you look at IOC, the popularity and interest around the sport of surfing has brought about the decision to host it in Tahiti (for the 2024 Paris Games). The proposal that we will look at, may have never happened in the Commonwealth Games before but the reality is, and let's face it, the size of the Games could be unwieldy for some countries to host. Especially the smaller states and island nations. So we have to move beyond normative references that people have for the Commonwealth and be able to make this a modern movement. What's emerging from India now is an innovative possibility. If we don't encourage it, we'll soon turn stagnant and irrelevant."
In June 2019, the Birmingham Games organising committee nominated shooting and archery to be dropped from the 2022 program to make way for women's T20 cricket, beach volleyball and para table tennis. The host city cited lack of "appropriate facilities" to stage competitions in the sport and for the first time since 1970, shooting was excluded from the Games. India topped the table for shooting at the 2018 Gold Coast Games, bringing home 16 medals and finishing third in the medals table with a total tally of 66 medals. Archery also existed as an optional sport in the Games program and has only featured twice - 1982 Brisbane and 2010 Delhi - in the competition's history.
Miffed by the move to exclude its primary medal raker, IOA expressed its protest by skipping the Commonwealth Games Congress in Rwanda in early September, withdrawing two of its candidates from elections in the body and proposing to boycott the Birmingham Games. With the 2022 Games being the first major multi-sport event to be staged in the country in the post-Brexit era, Britain was seemingly anxious at not wanting to tick off a trade partner. In the Commonwealth context too, India isn't a player that could be ignored.
Grevemberg along with CGF president Louise Martin visited India in November to engage in talks with the IOA and, late in December, the IOA, following its annual general meeting, announced its approval to NRAI's proposal of India hosting the shooting and archery events. The IOA also announced its decision to drop boycott plans, and made public its intent of hosting either the 2026 or 2030 edition of the Games, subject to government clearance. This, just months after the IOA president Narinder Batra had questioned the relevance of the Commonwealth Games itself and called for a total withdrawal of India's participation in future editions. "A Commonwealth Games experience is massive for juniors. It's their window to the Olympics," says junior rifle coach Suma Shirur, "It's because we took a firm stance and refused to budge that we have a proposal to host the event ourselves today."
It is understood that Singh got the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) on board with the idea and floated the proposal of India hosting the events to the CGF top brass on the sidelines of the world shooting body's General Assembly late last year. "The idea was simple, we didn't want to penalise our athletes for an administrative lapse of not being able to turn shooting into a compulsory sport in the Games program so far," says Singh, "The CGF had been very open, constructive and receptive toward us and that's where the reciprocity came from."
Jaspal Rana, national junior coach and one of India's most decorated pistol shooters, termed the unexpected turn of events as one of both 'joy and relief'. "We didn't want to be the reason athletes from other sporting disciplines missed out on participation in the Games," he says, "We would be carrying a huge burden of guilt if we were forced to go through with our boycott plans."