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Rugby League Bids for CWG Spot


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League in bid for Games

JAMAL Idris and Jharal Yow Yeh could be on their way to becoming Commonwealth Games stars if rugby league wins its bid for inclusion in the program at a meeting starting in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

The Rugby League International Federation confirmed yesterday it would make its case for inclusion before the Commonwealth Games Federation's sport committee, with the aim of being included in the 2018 competition if the Gold Coast wins its bid to host the event.

The Gold Coast and its only rival, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, will present their bid books to the CGF in Malaysia next week, with the host city decision to be taken on November 11 in St Kitts and Nevis.

The British-based Rugby Football League is taking the lead in the sport's bid and the RLF's director of participation, David Gent, will present the proposal. Gent was previously involved in a successful bid by the International Canoe Federation to be added to the list of optional sports for the Commonwealth Games.

Australia captain Darren Lockyer and New Zealand counterpart Benji Marshall have made video messages to be presented as part of rugby league's pitch.

RLIF international development manager Tas Baitieri was optimistic yesterday.

"We have been working on it for the last six months and we have 16 countries lined up to participate," Baitieri said.

"Let's hope it goes our way -- we think we have a good showing."

The proposal is for either a sevens or nines competition to be added to the 11-day Games program, but the RLIF favours the nines version.

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief Perry Crosswhite is also enthusiastic about the proposal.

"The future of the Commonwealth Games is to make sure that you have sports that are strong in the Commonwealth," he said.

"That's what it's about, it's not a small version of the Olympics, it needs that point of difference."

The Australian

Hmmm. Rugby League might be my favoured week-to-wek sport, but I really have my dobts if its worth a spot on the CWGs roster. I guess the Commonwealth sports roster is flexible anyway, but Rugby Union 7s is already one of the compulsory sports and I can't see how League 7s or 9s would provide much of a variety or difference.

As much as I'm not a cricket fan, I think 20-20 cricket probably should be ahead of the queue for inclusion rather than Rugby League.

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Yeah true...and what's to stop the Football Association from pushing for a place as well? There is talk that the Woman's Rugby 7s want a tournament to ballance out the mens' event. Idealy we would want to keep the games' costs down or we could end up with a New Delhi scenario all over again.Still...it's up to the CGF and they may want a pool of floating sports that host cities can pick and choose from.

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Still...it's up to the CGF and they may want a pool of floating sports that host cities can pick and choose from.

Well, the CGF have already have the floating roster format in place for some time - indeed, the CGF's floating sports roster is one thing I think they already do better than the IOC.

Anyway, it looks like the CGF are keen on 20-20 cricket, and have agreed to look at putting Rugby League on the roster:

League, cricket eye Commonweath Games spots

Rugby league and cricket have edged closer towards inclusion at the Commonwealth Games.

Rugby league was recognised by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) executive board yesterday in its quadrennial review of the sports program.

Sports review committee chairman Tunku Imran also declared that the CGF wanted to have the Twenty20 version of cricket on its list of optional sports (which the host city can choose).

Imran said rugby league would join the sports "that we recognise as working towards future inclusion."

"We are very pleased to see the high level of commitment by the Rugby League International Federation to further develop the sport across the Commonwealth," he said.

The Rugby League International Federation is proposing to have either the sevens or nines version of the sport included in the list of optional sports in time for the 2018 Games.

The CGF will approach the International Cricket Council again to push for Twenty20 inclusion in future games.

Organisers of last year's Delhi Commonwealth Games were keen to include the sport but the powerful Indian cricket board rejected the idea, saying it did not want to further encourage this format of the game.

"It is fundamental that our sports programme continues to evolve in such a way as to sustain the Commonwealth Games as one of the world's leading multi-sport events," the CGF vice-president said.

"Given cricket's strong association with the Commonwealth, the CGF will have further dialogue with the ICC as to the possibility of 20/20 cricket being included as an option for future editions of the Games," Imran said.

Cricket made its Games debut in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 with a one-day competition. India sent a second-string squad to Malaysia and the sport was dropped from subsequent Games events.

The executive board has also recommended that beach volleyball be added to the list of optional sports (category two) for future Games, but that synchronised swimming and synchronised diving be removed from the program.

The CGF general assembly will ask its 71 member countries to vote on whether to include beach volleyball from the 2018 Games. It will vote on the proposals in November.

NZ Herald

Also nice to see Beach Volleyball get a nod. That should boost the Oz CWGs medal tally (we sure need it!)

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  • 4 weeks later...

:) Agree with beach volleyball (since I play it)as it requires little cost to set up. You can drop it into a tennis court if neccesary.

Cricket 20/20 looks expensive, yet a croud pleaser. League, mmm - well we've already got Union, and it's a global and Olympic sport.

The idea is to get cost down. The CWGs are pointlessly expensive...(that scratched record again)

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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm not sure why Twenty20 would be expensive to stage. Most Commonwealth countries have some sort of cricketing tradition and most likely bidders have good class cricket grounds available. The logistics wouldn't be the biggest problem. Squeezing it into an already ridiculously overcrowded international calendar would be.

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