Bid to host 2018 Commonwealth Games:

Hambantota win will be life-changing - CB Governor

Sri Lankans will enjoy an "extraordinary life-changing situation" should the port city of Hambantota, ravaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, win the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Ajith Nivard Cabraal has told Reuters.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was speaking in Kuala Lumpur after handing over the city's bid book and delivering a speech to Commonwealth Games officials in Malaysia.

The Sri Lankans are up against Australia's Gold Coast to host the Games, which occur every four years, featuring up to 17 sports for athletes from more than 70 countries of former British colonies.

"It means an extraordinary life changing situation for our country," Cabraal said when asked why the city had made their surprise bid.

"I think in 1998 when they (Malaysia) hosted the Games they were just a country that was maturing but it made a huge change and was a huge plus for them, so I think this will do the same for Sri Lanka."

Forty thousand Sri Lankans were killed by the devastating tsunami which struck the country's south coast, where Hambantota is situated.

Since then, the town has witnessed a large number of redevelopment projects with a new port almost complete, a state of the art airport able to welcome the largest aircraft in the world and new roads and railway lines under construction.

"This (bid) will show and convince ourselves that we have moved on from that (tsunami).

"It was a devastating experience for us, 40,000 of our people died and the coastline was devastated but we have rebuilt it, and if you go to any part of the south or east you will not see any sign of the tsunami any more.

Cabraal said that the majority of the work in Hambantota, which hosted matches at the recent cricket World Cup, was to be completed regardless of the bid and could be an inspiration to other smaller countries in the Commonwealth who were thinking of bidding in future.

Should the Gold Coast be successful with their bid, it would be the fifth time Australia has hosted the Games with only nine countries having the honour in the event's 81-year history.

"I think it needs to change," Cabraal said of numbers.

"It (Hambantota winning) will also encourage many other countries to come up and say 'we would like to do it ourselves too' and that will give an extraordinary impetus to the Commonwealth Games itself."

Cabraal was confident of securing all the necessary funding for the $1.8 billion project and that the government have guaranteed support to pick up the surplus should costs overrun.

"I think we will be able to raise the funds without too much difficulty, even in the worst of time, projects that will yield good results and will give good long term legacies there is plenty of funding available.

"It is only a question of how you market it and how you show the benefits of a particular situation and if you can convince people and the people can see that these are going to make some major differences for them and some major revenue streams for them then they will be people who (commit) even in the worst of (financial) times."

The slim Cabraal, receiving praise for his speech from Commonwealth Games members as he discussed his team's bid with Reuters, believed hosting the event would generate a boom in sport in Sri Lanka similar to that witnessed when the country became a full test cricket playing nation.