Sri Lanka among four countries to express interest in Commonwealth Games - BBC

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Sri Lanka is reportedly among four countries which have expressed interest to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, according to the BBC.

Australia, Canada, India, and Sri Lanka have expressed interest in staging the 2026 Games, the BBC reported citing ‘insiders’ although no decision is expected until at least early next year.

“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.

The report also said that the number of compulsory sports is set to be reduced from 16 to two in a bid to preserve the games’ future. 

Only athletics and swimming will enjoy protected status, with host cities likely to be given more choice over their programme, with greater freedom to select urban and e-sports in a bid to appeal to younger audiences, and entirely new disciplines that are popular locally.