Charles Haviland BBC World Service

	Sri Lanka bids to host 2018 games in Hambantota

It made the remarks as a team from the Commonwealth Games Evaluation Commission arrived in the island to assess its suitability. The only other country bidding to host the Games, which happen every four years, is Australia.

The Sri Lankans say they will “surprise the world” in their bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the southern district of Hambantota. They insist they can beat Australia’s Gold Coast, even though Hambantota is a far-flung and arid part of a country just emerging from war.

The Sri Lankan bid organisers promise a whole new city, centred around a new cricket stadium. The district already boasts a huge Chinese-funded port and an airport under construction.

you need to move forward from conflict, from turmoil. That’s what Sri Lanka is doing. And I think we have every right to do so and we are doing that without neglecting in any way other people who need to be supported as well Governor of Central Bank

A senior member of the Sri Lankan committee, the Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, denied that the bid is extravagant when many northern Sri Lankans have yet to be properly resettled after the war.

Cabraal said “you need to move forward from conflict, from turmoil. That’s what Sri Lanka is doing. And I think we have every right to do so and we are doing that without neglecting in any way other people who need to be supported as well”.

Games in Hambantota

He also denied that Hambantota – which is President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home district – is getting disproportionate investment, saying previous governments earmarked the area for development.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Games, Mike Hooper, said he was satisfied that if Sri Lanka won the bid, there would be no repeat of the recent Delhi controversy involving last-minute building work.

“The minister today and the chairman of the bid committee made it very clear their aspiration is: 'we’re not going to see those sorts of issues coming in; we’re going to have our facilities and our infrastructure in place by 2016,’ Hooper said.

Some Sri Lankans worry about the cost, or question the public’s appetite for athletics. But the Games assessors seem to have an open mind and are now in Hambantota to consider it more closely.

The rival bids will be voted on the 11th November 2011 in St Kitts & Nevis. Individual country sporting associations all have a vote and it's by secret ballot.