Abhinav Bindra not in favour of boycotting 2022 Commonwealth Games

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Abhinav Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, on Sunday said boycotting the 2022 Commonwealth Games is not an option, and advised the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to "load" the CWG committees with more of their people so that, in future, shooting is not excluded from the games.

"Boycotts don't win you influence. They just make you irrelevant and punish other athletes. Would be far better if IOA did a campaign to load the CWG committees with their people and allies and push for the inclusion of shooting onto the core list of sports for the future," Bindra said in a tweet.

IOA President Narinder Batra had sent a mail to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and made it clear that discussions on these lines have been had informally by IOA members.

In the mail, accessed by IANS, Batra wrote: "This is with reference to the press statement of Secretary General IOA in the month of May 2019 regarding intention of IOA to most probably not participate in CWG 2022. The issues has also been informally discussed by IOA amongst some of the colleagues in IOA and they also agree with the views expressed by IOA Secretary General (Rajeev Mehta)."

It was revealed in June that the Executive Board of the CGF had decided to exclude shooting from 2022 Games to be held in Birmingham.

It is the first time since 1970 that shooting won't be seen at the Commonwealth Games and only the second since its first inclusion on 1966.

The move came as a blow to India which won 16 medals, including seven golds in the event at the 2018 CWG at Gold Coast, Australia.