Sri Lanka yesterday lost its bid to host 2018 Commonwealth Games to Australia’s Gold Coast by 43 votes to 27 although Queensland’s Prime Minister Ann Bligh admitted that it was a "very very close vote.’’
Central Bank Governor Ajit Nivard Cabraal who led Sri Lanka’s bid to host the games at Hambantota explained from St. Kitts in the Caribbean that the difference was actually eight votes. He explained that had eight delegates voted otherwise voted the result would have been different.
"The midpoint was 35 and we were eight short of that," he explained. "We thought at the latter stages that we might pull it off largely because Australia has hosted the games four times previously."
Cabraal said that other countries that had hosted the games before have said that hosting the event had been a ‘life changing opportunity’ for them.
"We urged that it was time to give somebody else that life changing opportunity," Cabraal said.
The leader of the Scottish delegation had said that 4,000 businesses in his country had flourished after Scotland hosted the Commonwealth Games and Cabraal has said that it was time to give Sri Lanka too such an opportunity.
He estimated that the country had spent between US$ 7 to 8 million on the bid for the games while the Australians had spent about a million dollars more. However, the bid for Hambantota had generated lot of visibility for this harbour town.
"Of course we are disappointed but Sri Lanka and Hambantota has got a lot of publicity and been put on the map as a result of our effort to get the games," he said.
He believed that the Asian and African countries had supported Sri Lanka and the balance had largely been tilted by Caribbean nations favouring the Gold Coast.
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