LONDON: Four countries, including Malaysia and Australia, have expressed interest in replacing Durban as host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) said on Friday.
Canada and the United Kingdom also indicated they would be willing to stage the competition after Games chiefs stripped Durban of the event in March.
Australia will host next year's Games on the Gold Coast and Malaysia welcomed the 1998 edition in Kuala Lumpur, while the English cities of Liverpool, Manchester -- the 2002 host venue -- and Birmingham have declared an interest in being the host city.
David Grevemberg, who told AFP in March that his federation had not lost faith in Africa one day hosting the Games despite the Durban debacle, said every effort is being made to keep costs to the bidders reasonable.
"Australia, Canada, Malaysia and the United Kingdom have submitted to the Commonwealth Games Federation expressions of interest in hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games," Grevemberg said in a statement.
"This is the first step in a collaborative process that will see a clear and detailed set of criteria applied to any Games hosting ambitions.
"The process has been streamlined to be as agile as possible given the time available and to minimise costs for potential hosts," added the American sports administrator.
Grevemberg, who was chief executive of Glasgow in their successful hosting of the 2014 Games, said there would be an intense assessment process of the viability of each candidate.
"Based on the number of interested parties it is not expected that the process will finally conclude until early autumn," he said.