Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, back home from attending the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington, broke journey in London last week to be interviewed by BBC’s popular `Hard Talk’ program after a previous effort to have him on board the program was aborted by the tapes being erased by a claimed technical glitch.

``I broke journey in London for a day and the program was recorded and broadcast,’’ Cabraal said yesterday. ``The questioning was tough but I was able to say some of the things that I wanted to say. I think it went off quite well.’’

He said that it was aired while he was on his way to the airport for the return flight to Colombo and many people who were awaiting their flight departures in the lounge had seen the program.

``Some of them said `so you are Mr. Cabraal who appeared on Hard Talk,’ the governor said.

Cabraal has been intensively prepared by the Sri Lanka Government’s public relations consultants in London for the original `Hard Talk’ program which was wiped off the tapes provoking some adverse comments here.

The program’s popularity stems from the aggressive line of questioning its interviewers adopt. The interviewer this time round was Stephen Sackur.