Bangladesh joins India in appeals to include shooting at 2022 Commonwealth Games

Bangladesh, on Thursday, joined India in appealing to the British government to intervene to have shooting included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. This comes after the Birmingham organising committee dropped shooting because of a lack of suitable venue, prompting a boycott threat from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Zahid Ahsan Russel, Bangladesh's sports minister, this week wrote to Tariq Ahmad, British Commonwealth minister, saying that the Games "should include shooting for the sake of its historical image and goodwill," as reported by the AFP.

"Shooting is a popular sport in Bangladesh. Also, shooting sport has been gaining its popularity gradually over the globe," he added.

Bangladesh's only two medals, both silver, at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018 were in shooting, as were all its eight medals in the history of the event.

"Shooting presents our only realistic chance to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games," said Enthekhabul Hamid, secretary-general of Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation.

"It's really disappointing. But I believe they will not to drop shooting," said Bangladesh's top shooter Abdullah Hel Baki.

Earlier this month India's sports minister Kiren Rijiju wrote a similar letter regarding the reinstation of shooting to British sports secretary Nicky Morgan. Last year, shooting - along with archery, beach volleyball, women’s cricket, and Para-table tennis - expressed its wish to be part of the Games which gave rise to an assessment panel to assess each sport's case.

But in June, Birmingham 2022 organising committee announced that only beach volleyball, Para-table tennis and women's cricket had been successful. The move has proved highly controversial, with India threatening to boycott the event if the sport is not reinstated. India topped the table for shooting at the 2018 Games in Australia, claiming 16 medals in the discipline out of their overall tally of 66 medals.