The model was launched by Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the co-chairman of Hambantota 2018, in the presence of Mike Hooper, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).

Sports City is due to be home to 90 per cent of the venues and facilities for the 2018 Games if the bid is succesful and they beat their only rivals, the Gold Coast, when the CGF picks the host city at its meeting in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11.

The site includes the new Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, which successfully hosted two cricket World Cup 2011 matches last month.

It also incorporates an athletics stadium with full warm-up and training facilities, a hockey stadium, international aquatics centre, an international sports complex to stage both indoor and outdoor sports, an indoor arena, a velodrome, an 18-hole golf course, an exhibition centre; and an athletes village.

"We are honoured that Mike Hooper can be with us for a glimpse into the future of sport in Sri Lanka," said Cabraal, who is also the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

"The infrastructure planned for Hambantota - including the state-of-the-art Sports City – is the beginning of a sporting renaissance.

"Hambantota will become a new world venue for sport offering the very best warm weather training hub, superb competition facilities and a national centre of coaching excellence."


Sports City was conceived in 2009 by Namal Rajapaksa, the MP for Hambantota whose father Mahinda is Sri Lanka's President.

The development is being integrated with education infrastructure to help keep talent and tuition fees within the country.

The 3D model reveals the development will also house two universities specialising in sports, business and media, a business enterprise park and an IT park.

Sri Lankan officials have promised to complete the facilities by December 2016 in a bid to try to end fears that by awarding the Games to Hambantota it could suffer from the same problems that overshadowed the build-up to last year's event in New Delhi.

The construction of a five-star hotel is due to begin in the middle of this year, and a host of contracts with major hotel chains like JW Marriot, Hyatt and Shangrila, are to be signed, Sri Lankan officials claim.

The Hong Kong-based luxury hotel group Shangri-La announced earlier this year that it plans to develop a 300-key city resort on approximately 100 acres of land in Hambanthota, to open in 2013.

Hooper also visited the fast-developing "new" city of Hambantota with Sri Lanka 's Sports Minister and co-chairman of the Organising Committee, Mahindananda Aluthgamage.

Major infrastructure developments are already taking place including a new sea port and second international airport, a high capacity public transport system and new road network in the pipeline.

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