Mr Cabraal travelled to St Kitts together with 160 strong delegation

Holding a press conference, Co-chairmen of the bidding committee, Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and the Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Niward Cabraal justified efforts made by Sri Lanka to win the bid saying that the Hambantota city got a good exposure.

Denying allegations that Australian city Gold Coast won the bid by corrupt practices, Mr Cabraal said : “this is hearsay”.

The Central Bank head said that Canada has influenced voters away from Sri Lanka.

“Canada brought a proposal that India had not done the games very well. I think that it created a fear among some of the delegates who associated India closely with Sri Lanka, naturally,” he said.

Eight million US dollars

Sri Lanka has spent over eight million US dollars to win the bid.

Mr Cabraal said that government spent only 1 million US dollars and 7 million were raised through the private sponsorships. It was not clear whether these funds have to be returned to the sponsors.

He admitted that opposition leader gave an undertaking to host the games in the event of government change.

“It is a standard practice to get oppositions undertaking by the Commonwealth Sports Federation and Mr Wikramasinghe produced a brilliant letter”, he added.

Mr Cabraal travelled to St Kitts together with a 160 strong delegation that included Co-chairman Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Namal Rajapaksa, MP, provincial councillor Anarkali Akarsha, former national cricketers Muttiah Muralitharan and Aravinda de Silva among others.

Australia’s Gold Coast win the bid to host 2018 Commonwealth Games and Sri Lanka received 27 votes out of 70.