Hambantota and their sole 2018 rivals, Gold Coast in Australia, are both currently here for the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly with the winning bid set to be announced this Friday (November 11).

The event in the Caribbean comes just days after the 2011 CHOGM which was dominated by the war crimes subject with Sri Lankan Government forces accused of committing atrocities against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) following their final push that defeated the separatists in 2009 following the 26-year-long civil war in the country.

The accusations stated that the military killed tens of thousands of civilians leading to calls that the Sri Lankan President, who attended the Summit in Perth, should be put on trial and that the country should be expelled from the Commonwealth.

However, the 2011 CHOGM concluded with the Commonwealth leaders in Perth unanimously agreeing that Sri Lanka will host the next summit in 2013.

"At the summit in Perth, the Commonwealth leaders all endorsed Sri Lanka as the next CHOGM hosts in 2013 and that clearly allies any fears regarding the war crimes issue and puts it to rest," the young Rajapaksa told insidethegames.

"In Perth, we were asked difficult questions by all of the Commonwealth leaders about the accusations and my father responded to all of the questions and provided more than satisfactory answers.

"If that had not been the case, then we wouldn't be down to host the next CHOGM.

"If it is good enough for CHOGM, it should be good enough for the CGF.

"So this is no longer a problem for the Hambantota 2018 bid.

"But we are here to play a clean game.

"This is sport, not politics.

"Sport is sport and politics is politics and to keep things pure, you should try not to mix the two."

Rajapaksa is spearheading a strong Hambantota 2018 team featuring a number of high profile individuals, most notably the former cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan, who is the most successful bowler in the history of Test cricket.

He claims he is increasingly hopeful that the Sri Lankan city can win and that he is working to the last to sway the 71 voting delegates to vote for them.

"My father said to me before I came here that he was proud of our bid and to let all the delegates know that we can deliver this event on time and on budget and stage a spectacular show," he said.

"This event would completely change the lives of the people in Sri Lanka and in Hambantota forever.

"They are very poor, low income families but the Commonwealth Games will do wonderful things for the area.

"The 2018 Commonwealth Games would create 100,000 jobs in the region and inject around $8 billion (£5 billion) into the economy in Hambantota.

"We know the Gold Coast are strong rivals but we would have everything in place by 2018 to host a fantastic Commonwealth Games."

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