There was little evidence over the ensuing six months that Hambantota, which is 129 miles south of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, were capable of mounting a credible challenge, even missing an opportunity in October to address the 71 members of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) at its annual Assembly on the eve of the Games in New Delhi.

But then the following month the first sign came that Hambantota should be taken seriously when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed the country's Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal to head its bid committee, which also included Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and former Deputy Minister of Justice Dilan Perera.

As a sign of intent it sent a powerful message to the Gold Coast and the rest of the world.

Under Cabraal, who took over as the Governor of the Central Bank in 2006, Sri Lanka's economy has undergone what has been described as an economic miracle. He has doubled Sri Lanka's GDP, substantially brought down unemployment and reduced poverty in a country that has been ravaged by a civil war. Earlier this year Sri Lanka was upgraded to the status of a middle income country the International Monetary Fund.

At the centre of Sri Lanka's plans is the redevelopment of Hambantota, which was formerly an outpost for Britain when it had its Empire, but which is now increasingly becoming an important strategic shipping port less than 10 nautical miles north of the major east-west global shipping route across the Indian Ocean.

Bidding for the Commonwealth Games fits into Sri Lanka's master plan and could help accelerate even faster the growth there. "The way we see it is that Hambantota is going to be the news story about Sri Lanka," Cabraal told insidethegames in an exclusive interview. "We are building a new port, we are building a new international airport, and we are siting many industries there. We are transforming the entire south of the country. This is a fantastic opportunity we have to transform the whole country through Hambantota.

"So it sits well in that mega plan to host a Games of this nature because that will give us additional focus to move forward with a timeline. In mega projects you can sometimes be very dedicated to a certain cause but unless you do have a really good timeline you don't really get going. It's like a wedding – it's only when we you fix a date that everybody starts working towards that. Until that you just drift along.

"If we get to host the Games it would give us a very clear timetable with deliverables and list of times. It will give us discipline. We think it would be great to have an international event of this nature which will: A) put Sri Lanka on the international map; B) will give us that discipline; and C) assist in the transformation of the city. We have commitment right from the top so we are very excited about it."



There is little doubt that the fact that President Rajapaksa was born in Weerakatiya in the rural district of Hambantota is an important factor in the city's bid but Cabraal (pictured left with the President) claims that Hambantota has long been marked out for major investment.

"Although the President comes from Hambantota every single [previous] President in our country knew the potential of the south," said Cabraal. "And every single person wanted to do certain things but was never able to do it. They all had grandiose plans about the port, about the highways, about the infrastructure that was going to happen. But for the last 30 years I have heard this story myself but nothing happened. But now - perhaps because the President is from the south, perhaps because he is an energetic man - that it is happening. This is a dream that every Sri Lankan has had for many, many decades and now it is getting transformed into reality."

It would be a truly remarkable story if Hambantota was to host the Commonwealth Games less than 15 years after it was hit by the tsunami, an undersea earthquake that killed a total of more than 230,000 countries in 14 countries, including most of the population in Hambantota.



"Hambantota was devastated," said Cabraal. "If somebody had gone there just after Christmas in 2004 they would never ever dreamt we would be talking to somebody about rebuilding Hambantota and doing what we are doing. It was so badly devastated, so many thousands of people killed. Every single thing was destroyed.

"But today, if you go to Hambantota, you will not see a single trace of that tragedy. Of course, the pain is there, but physically you won't see a single piece of evidence of that. The roads have been re-done to a much better level than they were. Buildings have been put back. The port has been completed.

"We have a fantastic cricket ground that has been built for the World Cup. Things have happened that shows the energy that has been unleashed after the tsunami. It speaks volumes of the intentions and drive of the people there that they want now to put that behind them and move forward."

Much of the redevelopment of Hambantota, including the new port which it is predicted could become the biggest in the region, has been controversially funded by investment of up to $800 million (£515 million) by China. "China has invested in many visible projects but at the same time there has been enormous investment from the US, UK, Europe," said Cabraal. "But these have been somewhat invisible in the sense that investment has come in the form of Government bonds so you don't associate it with a particular project."



Cabraal claims to have raised $2 billion (£1.2 billion) in international bonds - double what China has invested into Sri Lanka – which has been used to build new infrastructure, including transport links and hospitals. Malaysia has invested heavily into the country's telecommunications and India the transportation programme, including the railways.

Some analysts have claimed that Sri Lanka is set to be the major economic success story of the first part of the 21st century. "We have shown some extraordinary results," said Cabraal. "It took us 56 years to reach $1,000 (£644) per capita income from the time we became independent [in 1948] but over the last five years we doubled it. It has been a fairly energetic journey which when you put it in context was done while we fighting a terrorist war as well. Now the war is over we have set ourselves a new target – that we will double per capita income again in five years."

Hambantota, like the rest of the south of Sri Lanka, was largely unaffected physically by the war, a 26-year conflict between the Government and the rebel Tamil Tigers which finally ended in 2009 and which killed up to 100,000 people. But the conflict badly stunted the country's development.

"As a country we were all affected," admitted Cabraal. "Investment got affected. Now the war is over the way people see Hambantota - the way they see every other part of the country - is different and that is another huge success factor that we have. After the war our stock market has nearly doubled from one trillion [rupees] it has gone to two trillion [rupees]."

Hambantota is already building a new 37,000-capacity stadium that it due to host matches in the Cricket World Cup next March. But Cabraal admits that they will need to build between 14 and 17 new facilities, including a stadium to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and athletics, if they are awarded the Commonwealth Games. He estimates that the budget needed to host the Games will be between $3 and $5 billion (£2 and £3 billion).



"I need to sit down and see some solid stuff on the ground with proper structures which have to be translated into dollars and cents," Cabraal said. "Then I will get a proper picture. We are looking at a business model that will support whatever the cost is going to be. My job is to see that happening. When something needs to be done you have got to find the ways and means of financing it in the best manner.

"I think one of the reasons why the President may have selected me to head this bid is he is showing that business part of it is important as well. We have to deliver a Games that will not only be a great Games but also at the same time ensure there is a legacy, a cost benefit that has been thought through, that also is not going to hamper our economic freedom for the future.

"All those are factors I will certainly be giving plenty of thought to and making sure we have the right mix and the right balance to see that we can deliver and at the same time not cripple ourselves in the process and that it is going to be value for us. That's the challenge. My job is to see that value is created and that it is created at the right price. I'm confident that we can that."

But Cabraal sees the Commonwealth Games as being the start of Hambantota's journey, not the end. "It is not just a one-off Games and then we go into hibernation thereafter," he said. "We need to ensure that Hambantota will retain its ability to be attractive for the future. That is what is important as far as legacy is concerned."

As you would expect of someone who started his career as an accountant, Cabraal errs on the side of caution when it comes to planning the new facilities, particularly the stadium which always has the potential to be the biggest cost to any city when it hosts a major event.

"We have to make it as appropriate as possible," he said. "We don't want to go overboard and to make it in something we cannot maintain in the future. It will have to be fantastic, it will have to be something that people will talk about thereafter so they say that they went to the Hambantota Games and it was great.

"But at the same time we are not Beijing, we are not London, we are not Los Angeles. We have got to understand at what level we want to pitch it. But perhaps it will be the model for other developing nations to follow. I think there is plenty that is possible without going overboard with the costs. We don't want to just follow somebody's story. We want to create our own story."

Critics have claimed, perhaps unfairly, that Hambantota should not be awarded the Games after the problems that overshadowed the build-up to this year's event in Delhi, which included building delays, security problems and corruption claims. But Cabraal insists that their bid should not be handicapped because of what happened elsewhere.

"Each bid will have to be looked at on its own merits," insisted Cabraal, the founder chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee which developed the Code of Best Practice on Corporate Governance in Sri Lanka.

"What another country did or did not do, what they did right and what they did not do right, shouldn't really affect us. Every bid for every Games has some plus factors and some negative factors. The important thing is to learn all those lessons – not only from Delhi but from all the other cities, not only from the Commonwealth Games but also other Games. Look at what they did right and what they did not do right and then learn from those experiences and then structure our own Games accordingly.

"If you want to win cricket matches you've got to bat well, you've got to bowl well, you've got to field well. The rest of it comes only after you have done those three. Without dong the batting, bowling, fielding well there is no point talking about winning matches. So we've got to do that part right and only then will be in a position to look at other things."

The cricket analogy is an appropriate one for Cabraal, a keen player, who at school once shared a century stand with Roy Dias, the first Sri Lankan to reach 1,000 runs in test cricket."My contribution was two or three runs," laughed Cabraal.

The Gold Coast remains the favourites to be awarded the Games when the CGF votes on which city to award them too at its meeting in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11, 2011.

"They are a strong country, they are sports loving nation, they have shown the world that they believe in their sporting poweress which we respect," said Cabraal of his rivals. "We think they will be a great host someday but would like to see 2018 being Hambantota's turn."

Cabraal believes that if Hambantota is chosen to stage the Games then it will send a powerful message to the rest of the Commonwealth that the event belongs to them and not just a select group of developed countries like Australia, Canada and England.

"The majority of the members are still trying to move into the next level of prosperity in the world," he said. "We need to support them. If you do support them you will find that the path of progress will be even faster. I personally think that the best way of supporting countries is not to give them aid but work with them, give them opportunities.

"If you do that countries will move forward. We have done that in our own country in our own way with certain communities and certain groups. You find the more you empower them, the more you provide them with responsibility of doing certain things, they grow faster. That is important.

"So perhaps Hambantota's bid might an opportunity to the Commonwealth to recognise the potential of countries and cities. If that happens perhaps it will encourage other cities also from other countries to put up their hands and say, 'Okay let us do it too'."

To read more about the 2018 Commonwealth Games click here. 

Duncan Mackay is the editor of insidethegames