Gillard double-crossed over Games bid

AAP: Sri Lanka’s President has double-crossed Prime Minister Julia Gillard over duelling bids for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Gillard on Saturday hosted senior officials from across the Commonwealth for a sports breakfast in Perth, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

In the audience were the bid teams for the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota and Australia’s Gold Coast, as well as members of the 71 Commonwealth Games associations who have a vote.

The vote will be decided at an assembly in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean on 11 November.

Gillard made a brief mention of the Gold Coast as having put in a bid, saying Australia would host an “outstanding games”.

But President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose country is also hosting the next CHOGM, used his 10-minute speech to make a concerted pitch on behalf of his nation.

However, AAP has confirmed that the two leaders had an agreement, made through the Commonwealth Games Federation, not to make big pitches for their Games at the breakfast and limit themselves to a “casual speech.”

Rajapaksa said his nation wanted to mirror Malaysia, which hosted the Games in 1998 and witnessed massive economic expansion in the following years.

“(Winning the bid) would be a life-changing event in our history,” the President said.

He said it would allow reconciliation among his people, after years of civil war, and the reconstruction of infrastructure.

He pledged to finish building all accommodation and sporting facilities by 2015, promising the bid had his Government’s “highest backing.”

Rajapaksa pointedly noted Australia had hosted previous Games.