Having put all disputes behind and ten days of on-field battles already gone, it is now time for the athletes and officials to go back home as the curtain of the XIX Commonwealth Games falls today at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium through another splendid closing ceremony.
The closing ceremony will be a show of unity and solidarity as the participating nations and territories will walk together in the march-past instead of separately like the opening ceremony and send a message that they are leaving as one big family.
The ceremony gets underway at 7:00pm local time, 7:30pm in Bangladesh, and state-run television channel Doordarshan will telecast the ceremony live from the venue.
However, before the start of the second biggest sporting carnival after the Olympics, the nineteenth edition of the Games faced huge criticism from countries like England, Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Botswana after sloppy preparations, gun attack on tourists, collapse of footover bridge and dirty and unliveable environment, presence of snakes and dogs, dengue fever at the Games Village and concern for health and security. But things got better and better as the Games progressed.
Now all is past and the Games is set to be considered as a successful one though the local media reported that there was a threat of possible terrorist attack at the closing ceremony.
"We are not aware of any such threat," said Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell at a regular media briefing at the main media centre yesterday.
Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the organising committee, ensured that they would maintain the same level of security like the opening ceremony.
"Security is a serious concern and there will be the same level of security in place for the closing ceremony as it was during the opening ceremony," said Lalit.
Except the threat of terrorist attack, India will remember this Games for a long time as the hosts are still on way to finishing second, a feat they never achieved in their history, behind formidable powers Australia, who are all set to top the medal table for the sixth time in a row and overall 12 times out of 19 editions.
In absence of non-member sporting powerhouses like the USA, China, Russia, Germany and Japan in the Commonwealth Games, Australia, England, Canada, South Africa and India have always been the dominating powers and this time too there is no surprise that about 35 out of 71 participating nations and territories will have to return home empty handed.
With having eclipsed the previous highest medal-haul of 69 -- 30 gold, 22 silver and 17 bronze -- in the 2002 Games, India may be considered as the ever-improving sporting nation through this edition but there are still some concerns for them as most of their gold medals came only from shooting (14) and wrestling (10).
Of the 272 gold medals at stake, 256 have already been settled and the last 16 are up for the grabs on the closing day of the meet where star athletes pulled out citing different reasons such as health and security concerns and injuries.
Inspired by the success of the opening ceremony, the organisers have already made a last-minute change to the closing ceremony with a hope of making it one of the most spectacular shows ever held in India though Indian Olympic Committee secretary Lalit had refused to disclose the plans of the closing ceremony.
A German firm, which performed at the closing ceremony of FIFA World Cup, Winter Olympics at Vancouver and 2004 Athens Olympics, has been appointed for an eight-minute laser show that promises to mesmerise and dazzle the audience with dancing lights.
"We promise our show will be something never seen in India before. We were asked to come to India last week only. The expectation from the show is already very high. We have 40 smoke machines, 10 full-colour laser systems and 40 blowers,'' managing director of Tarm Showlaser Ralf Lotting was quoted by Times of India as saying.
The laser lights will also be used during the programme on dance and martial arts. The coordination between the laser systems, aerostat and performances will be done by the art directors. The special effects will see use of multi-colour lights.