As insidethegames has reported since it was confirmed earlier this month that hard-up Durban had been stripped of the 2022 Games, several cities have expressed interest. 

These include Edmonton in Canada, Birmingham, Liverpool, London and Manchester in England, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia, New Delhi in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

There have been suggestions that the last-named, which held the Games in 1998, could host a joint bid with neighbouring Singapore but I have a hunch that the city state may be gearing up for a bid under its own steam. 

I believe Singapore would be the perfect location.

That is a sentence I never believed I would write as the tiny but densely populated nation off the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula - they are linked by a narrow causeway - once shunned sport. Now, however, it cannot get enough of it. 

I know from my own time there, working on the English language daily The Straits Times in the 1980s, that sport was virtually a dirty word and education was everything under the late hard-line Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

But things have changed under the leadership of his son Lee Hsieng Loon, who has had the foresight to realise that business is business, and these days international sport is very big business indeed. 

Suddenly, Singapore has been transformed into the vibrant sporting hub of South East Asia.

Much of this remarkable change of philosophy is also down to Singapore's progressive International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president Ser Miang Ng who initiated the nation's new sports policy.

Ng, who stood for the IOC Presidency against Thomas Bach, orchestrated the 2005 IOC Session, when London won its 2012 bid, and was the architect of the subsequent inaugural Summer Youth Olympics in 2010.

A 67-year-old quietly-spoken multi-faceted businessman who heads the Republic's largest supermarket chain, he is a former politician, diplomat and yachtsman.

Now, Singapore sport swings where once it was stifled. It is the home of the superbly organised spectacular night-time Formula One Grand Prix and a state-of-the arts sports complex ideally suited to host a Commonwealth Games - perhaps even one day an Olympics.

Politically stable and virtually crime free under what the western world considers draconian laws on crime and punishment, Singapore has been consistently rated among the least corrupt countries in the world.

Like Durban it is hot and steamy but unlike the coastal South African city it is stone rich, one of the most affluent nations on earth. It would have no problem in meeting its financial obligations to the Commonwealth Games Federation.

It may be sanitised but it is also safe and secure, with copious hotels which are even more luxurious - and expensive - than those in the Middle East.

It also has a Las Vegas-styled casino - something that would have been an anathema when I was there as gambling was illegal.

This is based on Sentosa, Singapore's island resort, and was recently considered as a venue for an upcoming world heavyweight title fight.

Apart from the Youth Olympics and South East Asian Games, Singapore's most significant sporting event is the Grand Prix, raced annually since 2008 through the streets at dusk.

But the the real gem in Singapore's sporting crown is the 55,000 capacity National Stadium which is just a few years old. Friends in Singapore suggest it is well equipped to hold the Games' Opening and Closing Ceremonies and track and field programme.

The stadium features the world's largest retractable dome roof and configurable seating on the lowest tier to make it the only venue in the world custom-designed to host football, rugby, cricket and athletics events. 

The lowest tier has mechanised and automated retractable seating, allowing the stadium to host concerts and other entertainment at any given time.

It takes approximately 48 hours to reconfigure seating arrangements to suit an upcoming event. Depending on the seating configurations, the stadium has either a maximum seating capacity of 55,000 for football and rugby, 52,000 for cricket or 50,000 spectators for athletics and concerts. The special roof is made out of insulated metal to reflect sunlight.

The stadium is a part of the large multi-purpose Singapore Sports Hub, which also houses the Aquatic Centre, a multi-purpose indoor arena, the Singapore Sports Museum and a huge shopping mall.

It is also home to the Singapore national football team.

To reconfigure from athletics mode to football/rugby mode, the lowest spectator tier can be moved 12.5 metres forward, obscuring the athletics running track underneath the seats and thus bringing spectators close to the pitch to provide optimum spectator viewing distances. An energy efficient cooling system is also designed to deliver cooled air to every seat in the stadium.

Those who planned London's unwieldy Olympic Stadium, please note!

With such a world class stadium and swimming complex, the Government seems keen to utilise them to elevate sport to a higher level. This is especially true in the wake of the Rio Olympics where young swimmer Joseph Schooling sensationally beat Michael Phelps among other aquatic luminaries to win Singapore's first Olympic gold medal in the 100 metres butterfly.

I am told the euphoria lasted for months and put even more spring in Singapore's sporting step.

The Singapore Government may need a nudge from Ser Miang Ng but I do hope it can be persuaded to go for Commonwealth Games gold now that it finally recognises the true value of sport.