LNP – Sri Lanka expresses interest to host 2026 Commonwealth Games

Sri Lanka is among the countries which has reportedly expressed interest to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the BBC reported.

Accordingly, Australia, Canada, India, and Sri Lanka have expressed interest in staging the 2026 Games but, as yet, a host has not been secured.

“I am quietly confident that we will be announcing [the 2026 host] in the first quarter of next year, prior to Birmingham. We are working with cities and countries,” Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Dame Louise Martin said.

“Hopefully next year we will be able to showcase that you can bring in other countries to host together. We’ve been trying hard to get the smaller countries to host a Games, but they are too small to do it the way it’s gone.”

“So that is why we are looking at the roadmap, to see what is necessary, what do we really need to do. If somebody has a fantastic athletics stadium but the country next to them has got a fantastic shooting range, link up together and see what we can do,” she further said.

In 2017, Durban was stripped of the right to stage the 2022 Games after a trail of missed deadlines and financial problems, highlighting the burdens facing host cities for major sporting events.