New Delhi: There is no question of hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2026, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra said on Friday even as secretary general Rajeev Mehta reiterated that the prospect of doing so shall be one of the topics to be discussed at the meeting of the executive committee which is scheduled to be held on November 23.
Mehta had said on Thursday after a meeting between the IOA top brass and delegates from the Commonwealth Games Federation, who had come to New Delhi to convince the IOA not to go through with its threat to give the 2022 CWG a miss, that India would, in fact, be interested in hosting the 2026 Games.
"The withdrawal is still very much in discussion. So there is no question about hosting the Games," Batra told IANS on Friday. Mehta, however, said that the topic of hosting will be discussed on November 23. "This was something that came up during the meeting and was never on the agenda beforehand," he said.
"The boycott will be discussed first in the executive committee meeting and then we will talk about 2026," he said.
The talk of giving the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games a miss was triggered by the fact that shooting, a sport that is a major source of medals for India, was excluded from its programme.