When the Nigerian city of Abuja failed to submit a formal bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games by Thursday morning’s deadline, the southern Sri Lankan city of Hambantota jumped in joining Australia’s Gold Coast.
Goldcoast.com reports a former Sri-Lankan cricketer and Griffith University academic believes human rights injustices will mar Hambantota’s bid.
Griffith Sports College manager Michael Jeh said Hambantota’s bid would likely become a political minefield, reports goldcoast.com. He questioned how this tsunami-devastated, poverty stricken, war-torn region could justify spending billion on sporting infrastructure when its residents were still living in squalid refugee camps and illegally entering Australia by boat.
He said, “it will draw two separate emotions – the sympathy vote from the tsunami and the cynical anti-civil war sentiments. There will be international questions about human rights issues…why boat people are coming to Australia and leaving Sri Lanka in their droves if the living conditions are not that bad.
“If I was living in that sort of hardship, you would think they would sort out the refugee situation before taking the luxurious step of hosting the Commonwealth Games”.
He added it would be wildly ambitious for Hambantota to believe facilities could be constructed to host the event in eight years”.
Jeh said residents had little use for Olympic-sized stadiums and swimming pools and the facilities would likely become white elephants.
On the plus side, Brisbane-based Sri Lankan Association past president Hiran Cooray said Sri Lanka would get far greater benefit from hosting the Games than the Gold Coast.
He said, “Sri Lanka is a poor developing country. To get a chance for foreign exchanges to come to them…it would be a boost”.
