The South African city was awarded the event at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly in Auckland last month after its only rival, Edmonton in Canada, withdrew earlier this year as a result of a global decline in oil prices.

A total of 18 sports were proposed as part of the Durban 2022 bid: aquatics, athletics, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, cycling, hockey, judo, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, shooting, squash, table tennis, triathlon, weightlifting and wrestling.

Artistic gymnastics, however, was made one of 16 core sports which must appear at the Commonwealth Games following the passing of the CGF’s Transformation 2022 reform process at the General Assembly.

David Grevemberg, CGF chief executive, confirmed earlier this month that its inclusion at Durban 2022 was on the table as the body look to incorporate their programme.

Reddy, though, claims the lack of a facility would be an issue and believes it would be a core sport for the 2026 edition of the Games, not 2022.

insidethegames understands the CGF still view artistic gymnastics as a core sport for Durban 2022.

“Gymnastics is now a core sport, but it is a core sport as far as we are concerned based on 2026, not 2022,” Reddy, who is also the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee chief executive, told insidethegames, here during the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly.

“We have always indicated to the CGF that there are several sport types we would not look at and gymnastics was one of them, apart from the fact we are not strong as a gymnastics nation, we don’t have the kind of facility required.

“The footprint of gymnastics is as big as a rugby field, we do not have any indoor facility in Durban.

“We have made it very clear we are not going beyond the budgets we have put in place, if the International Gymnastics Federation comes to look at an event like that, someone has to pay for the facility.

“I am sure it will come to the table and we will negotiate with them, we are quite happy to get to the table and look at the possibilities, though.”

In addition to artistic gymnastics, track cycling was a notable omission from Durban's successful bid to host in seven years' time, having featured at every edition of the Games since the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton, despite being an optional sport.

The potential cost of building a velodrome is believed to have been the main reason for track being omitted, but Grevemberg recently revealed talks are ongoing over adding track cycling to the schedule in the South African city.

International Cycling Union (UCI) President Brian Cookson previously told insidethegames it would be a “tragedy” should track cycling not feature at Durban 2022.

Cookson suggested the outdoor Alexandra Park Velodrome in Pietermaritzburg, which was upgraded to host this year's African Continental Track Championships, could be an option despite being about an hour's drive from Durban.

Reddy admitted the UCI and the Cycling South Africa are pushing for Durban 2022 to include the sport, but warned they would not add a sport to the programme which had the potential to mean they would go overbudget. 

“It is easy for him [Brian Cookson} to say that we can have it outdoors, even if somebody offers to build a velodrome for us the question is the upkeep after the Games as it is an expensive venue to maintain,” he said.

“If he wants to pay for that [a temporary venue or Pietermaritzburg] then we can negotiate at the table, but we are not putting any sport on the programme that will cause problems for our budgets that we have promised our government.

“We have learnt lessons from the football World Cup [in 2010], we are not going back to that.”

Reddy is hopeful, however, that Twenty20 cricket could be included at the Games after the CGF revealed there had been “exploratory talks” with the International Cricket Council (ICC) regarding including the sport at the Games for the first time since Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

“The issue is likely to be around negotiations with the ICC,” he said.

“The thinking is because the top nations in cricket are Commonwealth countries anyway, it should add value and be a quality event, particularly as a host country as South Africa is crazy about cricket.

“It has huge potential, we are looking at getting the top teams.”

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