Tom Degun: 2022 Commonwealth Games appears perfect target for London

They say strike while the iron is hot - and right now London is on fire.

After staging an Olympic and Paralympic Games last year that was widely considered one of the best ever, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and UK Sport were quick to underline their intention to bring more major events to the capital, and indeed the whole of the Great Britain.

It was in November that the Minister and the high performance agency unveiled the Gold Event Series, which aims to bring over 70 of the world's most prestigious sporting events to the UK, including 36 World and European Championships.

"One of the most important sports legacies of London 2012 is our ability to attract major events in the future – which boost the economy, increase tourism and encourage participation," explained Robertson at the unveiling.

"We already have a fantastic eight years of great sport events planned and I want to attract more events in the years ahead."

London staged an Olympic and Paralympic Games last year that was widely considered one of the best ever

Already the UK has secured a number of these prestigious major events - not least the 2017 World Athletics Championships - but a major, multi-sport event undoubtedly provides a more obvious opportunity to help show-off a city on the rise.

Outside the Olympic and Paralympic Games - which won't be coming back to the UK anytime soon - the biggest multi-sport event that could be staged in Britain in the near future is the Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games will obviously be staged in Britain very soon when Glasgow hosts the competition next year before it goes to the Gold Coast in Australia in 2018.

But in 2022, there is a clear vacancy that will not be filled until the latter part of the 2015, when a host city is due to be announced at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly.

At this early stage, London has been the only real mover with the Mayor's Olympic legacy adviser Neale Coleman publically declaring an interest.

To me, the 2022 Commonwealth Games seemed like an obvious target for London the second I watched the Paralympic Flame extinguish on September 9 last year from my seat in the Olympic Stadium.

Since then, I have asked the Sports Minister, UK Sport chair Baroness Sue Campbell and Sport England chief executive Jenny Price their thoughts on the issue.

Although all were initially surprised by the question, it took just seconds for all three to back a potential London bid for the event, the trio all suggesting it would be a great legacy for the London 2012 facilities.

Admittedly when I asked Robertson, he said had not looked at all at the idea, but he still spoke clearly.

"On that issue, we would first have to look at who is bidding for it," he told me.

"I am a huge supporter of the Commonwealth Games and have been involved in several Commonwealth Sports Ministers meetings. So I would love to see the Commonwealth Games come here. But with the Commonwealth Games, the same sort of logic applies as it does with the Olympics in that it is an event that moves around the world.

"I think there will be quite a lot of countries that might look at a Commonwealth Games bid as a way of teeing up a future Olympic bid. So I would be very surprised if the competition in 2022 and 2026 wasn't very tough indeed."

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson is one of the senior figures keen on a London bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games

The thing is; the competition to host the event may not be so fierce after all.

Besides London, the other bid hitter out there would be 2010 FIFA World Cup hosts South Africa, particularly with the continent having never staged the Commonwealth Games. Rumours have long-been that they would use the 2022 event to line up a 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid. They also have a perfect bid leader in Gideon Sam, President of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), given that he is also the CGF vice-president.

When we last spoke on the subject, Sam told me a 2022 Commonwealth Games was imminent. But he has since gone eerily quiet on the subject, making a South African bid not quite the formality it once was.

Another potential bid hitter could be Singapore, who so marvellously staged the inagural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 - an event not much smaller than the Commonwealth Games. But Koh Peng Keng, Singapore's director of the sports division in its Ministry of Community Development, told me 2022 may be too soon.

Outside that, Canada remain interested, with Toronto mooted due to their staging of the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games, as do Sri Lanka after Hambantota lost out to the Gold Coast for the 2018 edition of the event.

South Africa could produce a formidable bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games after successfully staging the 2010 FIFA World Cup

But to be honest, whoever bids will not want to see mighty London, with its unparalleled hosting credentials and facilities, against them in a race to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Even Birmingham and Sheffield, other potential 2022 English bidders, have gone quiet since the London announcement, seemingly aware they could struggle to match the merits of a bid from the capital.

Potential weaknesses are that Britain will host the event at Glasgow 2014, only eight years earlier than 2022, and have hosted the event several times before.

But for the Commonwealth Games Movement, rotation is not nearly as important as the quality of a bid.

This message was reinforced after the "Delhi disaster" when the Indian capital just about managed to scrape things together to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Such was the fall-out from that disaster that the Gold Coast quiet easily beat Hambantota in the race for the 2018 Commonwealth Games by quietly saying that they offered a much safe pair of hands than the Sri Lanka, which the Commonwealth Games Movement knew they needed after Delhi 2010.

Not only do London offer that pair of safe hands, but quiet simply a spectacular pair of hands as they showed with the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

England is still thought of very warmly by the CGF after the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games proved one of the greatest editions of the event in history and it can also do no harm that the CGF's headquarters are based in London, making Stratford an ideal location for them. Senior figures there are already said to be licking their lips at the prospect of a bid from the city.

England last staged the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002

Meanwhile Commonwealth Games England (CGE) describes "the Greater London Authority's interest in a London bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be a positive initiative".

But there is still over a year until bids must be lodged and so for the time being, we must wait and rely on speculation.

However, the one thing for sure is that if the heavyweight that is London steps into the ring for the 2022; they will be very difficult to beat.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.