By Andy Schooler, in Manchester

Melbourne believes it has the perfect pedigree to take over the baton from Manchester and stage the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

The Australian city is home to a host of top sporting events - tennis' Australian Open, regular cricket and rugby Tests and the Australian Grand Prix to name just a few - and the next step on the ladder is staging these Games in less than four years' time.

Ask one of the 30-strong Melbourne delegation here in Manchester and that is certainly the message that will come over.

"We've positioned ourselves as the events capital of the world," says Clive Dwyer, general manager of event marketing at Tourism Victoria, who is working closely with the M2006 organisers.

"I can't think of another place that stages so many international standard events."

It may be a clever bit of PR, but there is certainly some truth to it.

A look at the venues that the Games will use proves that.

All the sporting stadia are already built - only the athletes' village remains to be constructed - with some redevelopment set to bring them up to tip-top condition in time for the opening ceremony on March 15 2006.

The centrepiece of the Games will be the magnificent Melbourne Cricket Ground which will host the ceremonies, plus the athletics events once a track is brought into position.

In contrast to the brand new City of Manchester Stadium, the MCG is steeped in sporting history.

Built in 1853, the ground staged the first-ever cricket Test match (1877), played host to the 1956 Olympics and by the time 2006 arrives will have a capacity of 98,000 - dwarfing anything Manchester has had to offer.

And if the MCG represents history, plenty of other Melbourne venues reflect the future.

Over at Melbourne Park - the tennis centre which stages the Australian Open every January - are the Rod Laver Arena and the Vodafone Arena.

Basketball, gymnastics and netball will be staged in these state-of-art facilities, both of which have retractable rooves.

The city's other major venue, the Colonial Stadium, completes a remarkable hat-trick for Melbourne.

Opened in 2000, the 52,000-capacity ground, which will host the rugby sevens tournament, also has a sliding roof, meaning the city was the first in the world to have three stadia with fully-retractable rooves.

It sounds very grand, but will these magnificent venues be packed to the rafters - if indeed they are overhead at the time?

Back to Clive Dwyer.

"The appropriate events are being put in the appropriate venues.

"There are three million people in Melbourne and on the whole they are sports mad and attend so many events.

"There are another three million who live within three or four hours of Melbourne within Victoria (the state in which the city lies).

"We're also very, very confident of the visiting friends and relatives market.

"We know from what's hapened here in Manchester is that a high percentage of visitors have been people staying with friends and relatives.

"We believe people in Melbourne will invite their relatives out during the 2006 Games - that's what's going to fill the stadiums."

To back that up, Dwyer said that around 70 per cent of fans visiting events such as the city's Grand Prix and the Australian Open were visitors from abroad and other areas of Australia.

So, apart from great venues, what will visitors in March 2006 have to see in Melbourne?

Well, there will be no judo or wrestling for a start. Those sports are being axed from the Games.

In come synchronised diving in the aquatics section, while basketball becomes the latest team event to make its entrance. Both these sports are seen as reaching out to younger fans.

"The Commonwealth as a group of nations is evolving, said Dwyer, "and so are the sports they are playing. They've got to reflect the growing culture."

For sight-seers there are the National Gallery of Victoria, a zoo, an aquarium and a host of museums including one dedicated to immigration.

Having been in Manchester over the past ten days, Dwyer knows Melbourne has a lot to live up to having been impressed by the English way of doing things.

"I think the mixing of the community and its culture with the sport has been great. That's what we've seen Manchester do.

"The volunteers' programme is fantastic and the festive nature has encouraged visitors to come. When the Games are over here they'll know it's gone. There will be a hangover period."

But not only has Melbourne got Manchester's legacy to equal but also that of the Olympics held in its Australian rival city Sydney which were dubbed the best Games ever staged.

Dwyer takes a wise sidestep on this one.

"The way I see it is that Melbourne has a lot to live up to going back to 1956. They were known as 'The Freindly Games' and really turned the corner for the Olympics.

"We're also trying to live up to the momentum gained by staging these big events every year. Sydney showed the capacity Australia has to hold a global event.

"We do have a lot to live up to but we're feeling pretty confident."

In that case, roll on 2006.