In a big boost to India's medal prospects at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, tennis and archery were on Saturday included among the disciplines for the mega event to be hosted in New Delhi.
India had also asked billiards to be included as one of the disciplines, but the Commonwealth Games Federation gave its seal of approval only to tennis and archery, a top sports administrator said.
"The Executive Board of the CWG Federation at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur has approved tennis and archery," said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, president of the Archery Association of India.
Malhotra said the inclusion of the sport would provide a fillip to archers like Jayanta Talukdar.
Sports are added or removed at the request of the host nation, although core sports such as athletics and swimming are constants.
The original 15 disciplines are athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, shooting, squash, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
But with the CGF removing the cap on 15 disciplines, the Indian Olympic Association was keen to add a few more disciplines, cricket being one of them.
However, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) failing to decide on format -- it was being mulled to have Twenty20 games instead of 50-overs matches -- and meeting the deadline to make a representation, cricket lost out.
