AHMEDABAD: The Indian city of Ahmedabad’s elevation as the official host city for the Commonwealth Games 2030 has placed Gujarat firmly on the global sporting map. The decision, cleared at the Commonwealth Sport General Assembly in Glasgow, was marked by confidence and celebration, with organisers outlining a multi-sport spectacle spanning 15 to 17 disciplines.

However, official data presented in Parliament has revealed a starkly different picture of Gujarat’s domestic sports ecosystem.

According to figures placed before the Rajya Sabha on Thursday by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Gujarat currently has no Sports Authority of India (SAI) Training Centres. The reply shows zero residential SAI Training Centres (STCs) and zero non-residential STCs in the state.

The data further indicates that Gujarat has just one SAI extension centre, but it reports zero residential athletes and zero non-residential athletes, across both male and female categories. While infrastructure exists on paper, participation numbers remain absent.

The traditional grassroots backbone of Indian sport—SAI-adopted akharas also reflects a complete vacuum in Gujarat. The parliamentary reply records no akharas, no residential or non-residential trainees, and no enrolled boys or girls under this system.

Taken together, the figures point to a flatlining of every grassroots pipeline designed to feed elite sport in the state.

The only notable presence at the national level is Gujarat’s two National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs). Yet even this highlights a sharp imbalance, with elite-level facilities in place while feeder systems below them remain statistically invisible.

This contrast becomes sharper in the context of the sports planned for Ahmedabad 2030. The proposed programme includes athletics, para-athletics, swimming, para-swimming, table tennis, para-table tennis, bowls, para-bowls, weightlifting, para-powerlifting, artistic gymnastics, netball and boxing—disciplines that require deep talent pools and sustained athlete development.

Yet Parliament has been informed that Gujarat has no SAI-supported grassroots athletes at present.

The figures raise questions about whether a state can leap directly to hosting a mega multi-sport event without a functioning foundational athlete pipeline. While stadiums and venues can be constructed within fixed timelines, the development of competitive athletes demands years of systematic investment.

Ahmedabad’s Commonwealth Games ambition thus stands divided between global approval abroad and domestic data at home—data that underscores the need for scrutiny, course correction and transparency as preparations move forward.