In a shocking development, the Indian Hockey Team on Tuesday backed out of the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 citing COVID-19 concerns and discriminatory rules for Indians in United Kingdom. 

This comes after England pulled out of Junior World Cup to be held in Bhubaneshwar next month, citing a number of concerns including the Indian government’s mandatory 10-day quarantine protocol for all UK nationals. 

The first row between India and England began when UK recently refused to recognise India’s COVID-19 vaccination and imposed a hard 10-day quarantine on travellers from India, even if they were fully vaccinated.

Following which India took reciprocal measures and updated its travel advisory for citizens coming from the United Kingdom, the updated protocols states that all British nationals arriving in India from the UK will have to go undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine irrespective of their vaccination status. However, the UK had relaxed some restrictions on all travellers from India but maintained a mandatory 10-day quarantine requirement. 

On Tuesday, October 5, 2021, India confirmed the withdrawal of its men’s and women’s teams from next year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

In a letter to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra, Hockey India chief Gyanendro Ningombam cited the ‘discriminatory restrictions’ that are ‘biased against India’ as an additional reason to pull out of the CWG.

In the letter, Narinder Batra has prioritised the Asian Games by stating that it is the continental qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, adding that they can’t afford to risk sending its players to UK which has been the worst affected country in Europe.

The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to take place in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8 next year, while the Asian Games begin on September 10 in Hangzhou, China.