KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 ― After days of silence, the inaugural Tour of Sarawak 2016 director has emerged and cast blame on the organiser’s peninsular Malaysia-based partner for failing to secure funds for the international cycling race.

With teams from all over the world, the event that was to start two days ago has earned the wrath of Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who said the cancellation has tarnished Malaysia’s image.

Director Mohd Fadzli Mohd Yusof said sponsorship pullout meant the main organiser, Fadz Industries Sdn Bhd, could not come up with the needed funding for the tour, which would have cost RM3.5 million, The Borneo Post reported today.

“That was what was promised to us but because of internal problems, our sponsors had decided to withdraw themselves,” he was quoted as saying.

Mohd Fadzli reportedly added that the organiser did not have any intention to “con anyone” and had even dug into their own pockets to cough up RM500,000 for the race.

He also insisted that the organiser did not use the RM200,000 given by the Youth and Sports Ministry for the event, and also did not take funds from private and corporate companies though it is unclear why the federal fund was not utilised.

He also said that competing teams will all be allowed to submit claims for travel and other expenses following the cancellation.

“I was the one who arranged their transportation to Kuching because their flights back to their respective hometowns is to depart from here,” he was quoted saying.

The Tour of Sarawak road cycling race was to start March 16-20 and was to cover 787.8km from Miri to Kuching in five stages.

The race had received the approval of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and was to put Malaysia on the world map for road cycling.

Its last-minute cancellation on the day the race was to kick off resulted in chaos as participants both local and overseas were unable to get in touch with the organiser.