Named after Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne in a public vote, the 10-metre-tall sculpture will take pride of place on the concourse and be a daily reminder to everyone visiting the city of an event that was a huge success and will always be remembered fondly.

But, after the shock announcement by Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday (July 18) that they were withdrawing from hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, there will also be a solemn feeling in the air.

There is a real fear that when Osbourne belted out his signature tune Paranoid, at the Closing Ceremony of Birmingham 2022 the final two lines could have more resonance for the Commonwealth Games than anyone knew at the time.

I love you all

We love you, good night, God bless you.

By withdrawing with less than 1,000 days until they were due to open, Andrews has put an event that was looking forward to celebrating its centenary in 2030 in mortal danger.

The ballooning cost of hosting the event was citied by Andrews, who claimed it "wasn’t a difficult decision".

Andrews told a stunned press conference, "I will not take money out of hospitals and schools in order to fund an event that is three times the cost [which] is estimated and budgeted for last year" for a 12-day sports event.

That is clearly not a logic anyone would argue with, but everyone is confused as how in the space of a year the budget of AUD$2.6 billion (£1.3 billion/$1.7 billion/€1.5 billion) was now predicted to cost AUD$6 billion (£3.1 billion/$4 billion/€3.6 billion), the figure quoted by Andrews.

A number of management firms contributed to helping set the original budget, including EY, but none appear to have been consulted on the new figure which Andrews blamed on the cost of hosting the event in five regional locations in Victoria.

Andrews, pointed to security, transport, services and temporary infrastructure as contributing to the cost overrun and, even after exploring all the possible alternatives, including relocating the entire Games to Melbourne, they could not find a way to make it cost-effective.

Commonwealth Games Australia has claimed the blowouts were exaggerated and that the Victoria Government had ignored recommendations it made to reduce costs. They are supported by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), who laid the blame at the door of local organisers for adding more sports.  

Investment banker, Melbourne philanthropist and former chairman of the Australian Sports Commission John Wylie labelled the move an "absolute shocker".

"Victoria has spent 30 years building a global reputation as a sports event city," Wylie told The Australian Financial Review. "To pull the rug on a major event like this and leave it in the lurch is a really bad look, and it goes to the heart of the state’s reputation as a reliable partner."

Volleyball Australia President and Australian Olympic Committee Executive Board member Craig Carracher claimed that "it’s not the Australian way to put your hand up and then put it down."

The fact that the Games were even in danger appears to have passed under the radar of CGF officials in London, given just eight hours' notice that Andrews was about to pull the plug.

In May financial analysts had warned that "Victoria is an economic basket case compared to the rest of Australia" after the Government's net debt was projected to hit AUD$171.4 billion (£89.3 billion/$116.9 billion/€103.9 billion) by 2026-2027.

That was a massive rise from AUD$39 billion (£20.5 billion/$26.5 billion/€23.8 billion) in 2019-2020, based on a combination of COVID-19 pandemic measures and transport infrastructure costs coupled with a slower growth rate than any other State in Australia.

The CGF may be guilty of sleeping at the wheel, but they need to wake up pretty quickly if they are to rescue a dire situation.

They claim they remain committed to finding an alternative host but know the options are severely limited for an event that suffers from an image problem of being closely linked to the British Empire and memories of slavery. A Guardian columnist even suggested on the eve of last year’s Opening Ceremony that they should come with a warning about outdated attitudes: "These Games were predicated on the mistreatment of people and cultures."

The same cliché stereotypes about the event are aired before every Commonwealth Games, but once the event starts, it rarely fails to deliver.

Yes, Jamaicans may be angry about the betrayal in the United Kingdom of the Windrush Generation, Indians may never forget that they were forced to live under the British Raj for nearly a century until it won its independence in 1947, and Kenyans will always be resentful that colonial forces mistreated, raped and tortured them during the Mau Mau Uprising.

But, on a pure sporting and cultural level, in my opinion, the Commonwealth Games, having attended every event bar one since Victoria 1994, still has a lot to offer cities that host them.

The one Games I have missed in the last 30 years, at New Delhi in 2010, may have been such an event so corrupt and so badly organised, it nearly killed them for good. 

India ruined its reputation for hosting major events for a generation, but thankfully the Commonwealth Games recovered quicker and each of the last three events have delivered beyond expectations.

Glasgow 2014 was delivered on time, on budget, enjoyed high levels of public support and participation and helped regenerate areas of the city neglected for generations.

Gold Coast 2018 fulfilled its promise of inclusion and equality, put the region on the world stage and ultimately provided the launch pad for Queensland’s bid to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

As a former long-term resident of Birmingham, I knew it was a great city but that it had hidden its light under a bushel for far too long. For the Commonwealth Games, the city embraced the event in a way I had not seen before anywhere else. 

The party started early and lasted late into the night with its beating heart being Centenary Square, where organisers parked the huge bull that has earned a place in Birmingham’s history alongside pioneering industrialist Matthew Boulton, chocolate legend Richard Cadbury, author JJR Tolkien, comedian Jasper Carrot and, of course, Ozzy Osbourne.

Birmingham 2022 was so good that for a couple of weeks the locals even stopped complaining about the bin collections, something of a local sport in those parts.

It is a pity that the CGF have failed to do enough to maintain that momentum and the future of the Games are once being questioned.

It would seem that the CGF’s only hope of rescuing the current situation they find themselves is to appeal for help again to the UK Government. They had underwritten funding for Birmingham 2022 after they stepped in to replace Durban in 2017 following the South African city being stripped of the Games due to missing a series of key financial deadlines.

The Commonwealth may be derided by many but it is a club which continues to expand with the addition last year of Francophone African nations of Gabon and Togo, who along with Rwanda and Mozambique are unique in not having a historic constitutional relationship with the UK.

The UK Government will not want the Commonwealth Games, which is the manifestation of the Commonwealth, to die so soon after the death last year of the organisation's figurehead, Queen Elizabeth II.

There is no shortage of world-class facilities in the UK, just not all in the same place. So, why not adopt the regional model that was being trialled in Victoria and try it in Britain instead? Athletics in London, cricket in Cardiff, cycling in Glasgow and lawn bowls in Belfast, for example. It would not only get the CGF out of a its predictament but help the Government’s "Levelling Up Agenda".

It is easy to dismiss the Commonwealth Games as being irrelevant and not mattering in the 21st century. But they still resonate for many athletes and the hundreds of thousands of spectators who turn up to watch them every four years. They are not the Olympics, but they have never claimed to be.

Never Say Die! Black Sabbath sung in 1978. If ever the Commonwealth Games needed to channel its inner Ozzy Osbourne, it is now.