2018 Commonwealth Games

Lanka has submitted its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the southern coastal city of Hambantota. The Indian Ocean island’s bid, if successful, will mark the first time the games are held in the country.
In a statement, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Mike Fennel confirmed receipt of Sri Lanka’s bid by the March 31 deadline.
“It is most pleasing to have two cities from different regions of the Commonwealth vying for the right to host the 2018 Games,” Fennell said. The other bid is from Australia’s Gold Coast. 
This, however, is the first step in a long process before the announcement of the winning bid in November 2011.
“This is the initial one [step], taken by the bidding team,” Maxwell De Silva, secretary general of the National Olympic Committee told Sri Lanka News Network. “We need to make a comprehensive presentation on what we are going to do, and submit a blueprint at a meeting in the Caribbean next year, where the final decision will be made.”
The Commonwealth Games have been held in Australia on four occasions, latest in 2006, since the founding of the international sporting event in 1930, and that gives Sri Lanka the opportunity to make a strong bid for the 2018 games.
The Hambantota district is leading a new phase of development in the country following the end of a 30-year civil war.
“We have a responsibility to rebuild the country under a stable government after terrorism was eradicated,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told ruling party supporters at the town hall in Suriyawewa in the Hambantota district, Wednesday.
Rajapaksa also announced that an international cricket tournament would be held at the Suriyawewa international cricket stadium by July this year.
Asked for his comments on Sri Lanka’s bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the president’s Media Coordinating Director Chandrapala Liyanage said that by 2018 the construction of the port, airport, hotels, sports facilities and other infrastructure developments in Hambantota would be completed and that he was confident that the city would be ready to host the games.
The Commonwealth Games, held every four years, will take place in New Delhi in October this year and in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2014.