CWG bid money not wasted: Cabraal

• Bid undermined by India’s event, promotion will last many years, may bid for 2022 Games

By Uditha Jayasinghe    
The money spent in promoting Sri Lanka’s bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games bid is not a loss, insisted Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday.
US$ 8 million was spent in promotions since March 2010 to promote Hambantota as the next games venue. However, Cabraal insists that only US$ 1 million was spent by the Government and that the rest was footed by the private sector voluntarily.

He described it as “remarkable value for money”.
However, he insisted that the money was not wasted since it gained Sri Lanka notice among 54 commonwealth countries, many of whom had no idea about the country and its post-war progress.
When questioned by reporters over whether the money would have been better spent on health or Samurdhi handouts, an obviously miffed Cabraal insisted that it was necessary to spend the money to showcase Sri Lanka as a world class venue.
“Gold Coast spent US$ 11 million. When Sangakkara goes out to bat against the Australians, he doesn’t say ‘I come from a poor country so I don’t have a good bat’. He uses the best equipment to showcase his talent and that is what we did,” he insisted, dismissing criticism of 130 people taking a special flight to promote Sri Lanka at St. Kitts ahead of the final announcement on Saturday.     
India’s lacklustre organisation of the last Commonwealth Games could have cost Sri Lanka the chance of hosting the 2018 chapter, he opined.
In his view, the adverse image of the Indian-hosted Commonwealth Games last year could have tipped the balance against Sri Lanka.   
“At the last minute Canada brought a proposal that India did not conduct the games well and that some payments have not been made yet. No doubt this was countered, but it created uncertainty among the members,” he said.
Cabraal also noted that even though Sri Lanka lost the bid, it would not deter them from developing the southern city of Hambantota that was earmarked to hold the Games. He said that Sri Lanka may bid for the 2022 Games but insisted that nothing has been finalised yet.
Asked as to why they did not wait for the 2022 Games, Cabraal pointed out that the main reason for wanting the event was the investment that would pour funds into the economy and projections indicate that by 2018 public investment will exceed US$ 21 billion. This means that the 2022 Games would be “unnecessary” for the economy.
Several international sports events are lined up for the venue, that is still largely at conceptual stage, including the South Asian Games in 2016 and Asia Amateur Championships in 2012, but there is no indication yet that it will go for globally-prominent events on the scale of the Asian Games.