Say farewell to London Olympics while Watching live the closing ceremony - Sunday 12 August

via Movin' Sports

Since mid July, London has been host to some 10,000 athletes and officials from 205 countries participating in the London Olympics - the third honour for London since its earlier two Olympics. And what an honour for the Queen to inaugurate the Olympics 2012, while the last London Olympics were inaugurated by her late father King George VI in 1948.

King George VI at the opening ceremony of London Olympics 1948

The grand opening this year was a memorable occasion which fascinated billions of viewers around the globe. The Queen 'parachuted' along with James Bond into the arena to announce the opening of the London Olympics.

The British Queen at the opening ceremony of London Olympics 2012

The Hey Jude sung by Sir Paul McCartney at the end of the opening ceremony added mush colours and nostalgia to the ceremony as the entire arena sang with Paul.

Now the Grand Finale is nearing as almost all event so the London Olympics are over. America tops the medal table with 45 gold, while China follows closely behind with 38 golds. Great Britain bagged 29 golds - its best Olympic performance in last 104 years. The London Olympics witnessed 44 new world records, while 117 previous Olympic records werer broken.

Usain Bolt created history for bagging tow medals in successive two two Olympics and made a world record in 4x100M men's relay race. Andy Murray won a final on the Wimbledon's Centre Court - the first British to do so in last 73 years.

Now all eyes are set for the closing ceremony or the grand finale which is to be held on 12th August Sunday evening.  The finale will feature about 4,000 performers alongside artists such as George Michael and the Spice Girls, who are getting together for this very special ceremony in the history of London.

The Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics will commence on Sunday, 12 August 2012 at 20:00 GMT

If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favorite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below:

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Watch the quest for Gold: Serena vs Sharapova Live Free Streaming | Olympics Tennis Ladies Final - 4 August

So it is finally decided that either recently crowned Wimbledon champion 4th ranked American Serena William or the French Open title winner 3rd ranked Russian Maria Sharapova will get the Olympic gold medal in the ladies' single event of Olympic tennis.

Jubilant Serena William [left] and maria Sharapova [right] after winning their semi final matches  [Photos: AFP Getty Images]

Maria Sharapova beat fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in an easy semi final run over 6-2, 6-3. This is the first time Sharapova is playing in the Olympics. Sharapova got unlucky when she was ousted from the Wimbledon race in the very early stage. 

Five times Wimbledon champion Serena moved to the final after beating the world no.1 Belorussian Victoria azarenka 6-1, 6-2. The win seemed too easy for Serena as world no.1 seemingly offered no resistance to the Wimbledon queen.

Serena is in run to grab a bagful of gold, as after Saturday's final, she is also to play the doubles final alongwith her sister Venus, who earlier crashed out of the ladies' single event race. But that is if the two win over Russia’s Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals to play against the Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. It may be added that the William sisters have twice won the gold in doubles in Olmpics 2000 and 2008.

As for Saturday's singles final, this the 11th encounter of the two ladies since they first played each other in Miami 2004. Of the ten previous encounters, Serena has an upper edge of 8-2 over the Russian. In fact Serena has beaten Sharapova consecutively seven times in their last ten encounters. 

The equation makes Serena favourite for the Olympic title this year, lest Sharapova surprises the American with her game today. It may be added that both ladies have never won a gold at Olympics before, so the quest for gold is equally important for both Serena and Sharapova.

The ladies' single Olympic tennis final  is scheduled for saturday, 4 August 2012 at 14:00 GMT at the Centre Court of Wimbledon.

If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favorite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below:

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* Please read our Disclaimer Policy with regard to free live streaming

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Pakistan vs Great Britain Live Stream Hockey Olympics 2012 – 3 August

Pakistan plays against Great Britian in its third hockey match of Pool A Friday today.

Pakistan's frist match against Spain ended in a 1-1 draw, while Pakistan won against Argentina 2-0. With four points, aaaaPakistan is at number hree in the pool position. Therefore today's match is crucial for Pakitan to win to improve its position in Pool A.

This will be the 11th match between Pakistan and Great Britain in Olympic Hockey. Pakistan has a good record against Great Britain in Olympic Hockey. They have won six, drew one and lost three against the European team.

A win over Britain will take Pakistan to the second place in Pool A, just behind world number ones Australia. The Pakistanis will just have to beat South Africa – the lowest-ranked team in their group – on Sunday to virtually secure their place in the last four.

The probable opposing squads are as under:

Pakistan: Imran Shah, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Rizwan (SENIOR), Muhammad Rizwan (JUNIOR), Fareed Ahmad, Rashid Mehmood, Muhammad Waqas, Muhammad Umar Bhutta, Abdul Haseem Khan, Shakeel Abbas, Sohail Abbas, Muhammad Tousiq, Shafqat Rasool, Rehan Butt, Waseem Ahmed, IMuhammad Imran

Great Britain: Glenn KIRKHAM, Ashley JACKSON, Harry MARTIN, Matt DALY, Jonty CLARKE, Robert MOORE, Ben HAWES, Alastair WILSON, Barry MIDDLETON, James TINDALL, Iain MACKAY, Iain LEWERS, James FAIR, Nicholas CATLIN, Dan FOX, Richard SMITH

The match is scheduled for Friday, 3 August 2012 at 15:00 GMT | 20:00 PST at the Olympis Games Park, London.

If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favorite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below:

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* Please read our Disclaimer Policy with regard to free live streaming

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London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony - Friday 27 July 2012

The big day of London Olympics 2012 finally arrives Friday night when the London Olympics will be formally inaugurated in a colourful and amazing opening ceremony at London Olympic Stadium, which has been transformed into a British countryside scene for the Opening Ceremony. The full dress rehearsal has already given a hint how massive and colourful the ceremony will be. Though there are concerns about the traffic management after approximately 60,000 spectators move out of the arena as long queues were observed at all terminals and were not cleared even after 01:00 AM.

The official London Olympics Logo and Mascots [ Mandeville and Wenlock  - above right]

The ceremony will take place at the London Olympic Stadium at 20:00 GMT. The ceremony will include the usual march past of the athletes, lighting up the Olympic cauldron with the Olympic torch, the formal inauguration of the games by the chief guest, and a beautiful performance by 15,000 performers at the end. Sir Paul McCartney, the ex Beatle, will also perform among other performers.

As is usual for all the Olympic games that the head of the state normally presides over the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II will be the chief guest. She will be received by the President of the IOC at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium.

The sequence of the rest of the proceeding of the opening ceremony, after her majesty settles down, will unfold as under:

Parade of Athletes -  Over 10,000 athletes from 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are expected to participate. The procession of the participating teams in the Stadium, nation by nation in alphabetical order, according to the language of the Host Country will take place as soon as the chief guest is seated. The first team to enter will be of Greece as the modern Olympic games originated from Greece. And the last team will be that of Great Britain, being the host country.

Speeches / Declaration of Opening of the Games of the XXX Olympiad / London Olympics 2012 - Two speeches will be made: one by LOCOG Chair Seb Coe, followed by Jacques Rogge. At the end of the speeches, Queen Elizabeth II be requested to officially declare the Games open.

Hoisting of Olympic Flag and playing of Olympic Anthem

Oath taking ceremony from the participants

The Torch and Cauldron - After the oaths, the opening ceremony will get going with the arrival of the olympic torch into the stadium.  It is passed through the athletes to the final Torchbearer, who will ceremoniously light the Cauldron, indicating the beginning of the Games. The Flame will continue to burn for the whole of the Games.

Creative Team - A host of world-class British directors and producers will lead an artistic team to stage the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Performers - This will be the main event of the opening ceremony. A total of 15,000 performers will take part in the opening ceremony, and also the closing ceremony, of the London Olympics 2012. The performance is being dubbed as  "The Isles of Wonder." The ceremony will conclude with the famous Beatles song, and my favourite, ' Hey Jude' sung by ex Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

It is expected that around four billion people around the world will witness the opening ceremony proceedings world wide - opening ceremony as it happens Friday, 27 July.

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Abbas – The Lone Pakistani Skier at Vancouver

For us in Pakistan, sports only revolves around cricket, hockey and to an extent squash and tennis. And quite obviously, very few would have known that a young man of 24 is out there at Vancouver, representing Pakistan in the Skiing event in the ongoing Winter Olympics. Clocking 3 minutes and 20.58 seconds, he ranked 79^th out of a total of 81 skiers (one of the remaining skiers was from India) and is ranked 3,764th in the world in giant slalom. But that doesn’t matter as the mere presence of this young man at the Winter Olympics is more significant rather than winning medals as this has been the first representation of its kind for Pakistan.

Muhammad Abbas hails from a village near Naltar, and like many Pakistani world record holders, he also couldn't afford to buy skis. And he started skiing by using homemade skis made from jungle wood made by his father. And so the journey to Vancouver started. The Naltar and surrounding areas provided the lift to go up to 500 meters. But the downhill run at Whistler is 3,105 metres. He had no alternative so skied on with whatever was available.

So here is a man, totally indigenous, yet standing tall for his country. We are all proud of him for becoming the first Winter Olympian.

Related Reading:

Abbas skis into Pak history

Learning on home made skis, Abbas becomes Pakistan's first Winter Olympian

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Gul Hameed Bhatti – A Man Born for Cricket

Those of us who love or read about cricket would be familiar with this name. Whenever cricket is talked about and analyzed, Gul Hameed Bhatti is consulted and expert opinion sought for he is considered an authority on Cricket statistics. He has not reached this place very easily for he has spent all his life for cricket – sacrificing many a opportunity that came his way but he chose cricket and cricket only.

I know Gul Hameed Bhatti since our childhood (he being my eldest brother) and I have seen him nurturing and maturing into a cricket man from his very early life. Eldest of us five brothers, he had a passion for cricket from the very childhood and he wanted to make a name in it. Those were the times when abduction of little children was very high, and our father being from Police (serving in Interpol) kept us at home after school time and wouldn’t allow us out after we came back from the school. While we all five brothers played cricket in our small courtyard (we called this domestic cricket as “Ghehgray Chalegray” – I don’t know how and who of us coined this word as it didn’t mean nothing but cricket). In his free time, Gul chose to play cricket on papers. He would make two teams, make them play and then record the entire innings with detailed analyses and hand drawn photos of action of bowlers and batsmen. He would write so artfully that it would look as it were typed. There are cartons full of such notebooks still packed somewhere in his house which were (and I hope still are) his prized possession.

But our late father wasn’t impressed. Like all fathers of his time, he also wanted Gul to be become a doctor, so he insisted upon him to opt for pre-medical in his high school. Which he did, but wasn’t much in it with his heart. So he couldn’t become a doctor. Then my mother wanted him to be a pilot as one of my maternal uncles (Captain Khusro Nawaz Khan) was in those days one of the best pilots of PIA. So he made the preliminaries, went to Karachi for initial training and came back to Lahore to get his solo license. He flew for 45 hours, but then he opted not to be a pilot either.

At that stage, he was given a choice to do what he felt like, so he took admission in journalism in the Punjab University. He did well as journalism was close to his passion of writing about cricket and obtained his Masters with honour and distinction. He continued to write about cricket and then for the first time joined “The Cricketer” by one Riaz A Mansuri and started writing from Lahore. Then Riaz invited him to Karachi to take over as the editor. I still remember the day when I went to see him off at  Lahore Railway Station and bade him farewell. So that was in early 70s and with that he bade goodbye to Lahore and took up his permanent abode in Karachi. Under his control, “The Cricketer” was transformed into an international standard magazine with quality printing and substance.  Gul  was also credited of introducing "the five Pakistani cricketers of the year" section which became an instant hit with cricket fans. But probably no journalist came to be as closely associated with the magazine as the indefatigable Gul Hameed Bhatti, guru of stats. He wrote for the magazine for years till he parted ways with it and joined “The News” and later rose to be the editor (sports) of all Jang Group of publications.

In 1978, he married Razia Bondray (later Razia Bhatti) who was then editor of “The Herald”. Both being journalists were a perfect match and lived happily thereafter. Had two children (Kamil and Sara). Razia in the meantime left Herald (in  fact forced to do so during the times of General Zia ul Haq) and opened her own “The Newsline”. But once again the democratic government of the time struck her and she under severe mental torture and harassment, had a brain haemorrhage and within hours she was no more. The departure of his beloved wife was a great shock and it was hard for him to take stock of the situation. But he did for his two growing children.

He also started writing about Hockey, Olympics and other sports related to Pakistan. He was seen on TV and Geo Super for which he wrote too. People around him respected him for his critical analysis and detailed reports. Once Anjum Niaz (the prominent writer and columnist) wrote, “I eagerly scan the sports pages to read the obituary of Masood Salahuddin. I am disappointed. Other than Gul Hameed Bhatti and M.U. Haq, the life and times of the great man have been overlooked. Why? It hurts to see the current czars of cricket ignore the men who took Pakistan cricket to dizzying heights that it could ever dream of reaching and that too only seven years after the country wrested independence from England”.  While one Sabina Ata writes about her interview with Gul for a vacancy at The News International. She says, “I remember how nervous I was, when I was called to meet the editor—Gul Hameed Bhatti. I had figured he was some really tough guy, who wouldn’t have time for a 20-year-old being the editor. When I went there, I was surprised to see a jovial man with a hearty laughter, willing to take time out to listen to me. A week later, I was hired as a trainee sub-editor and had to report to In charge Leisure page. We were supposed to compile a whole bunch of comic strips.”

He has always been in the limelight whenever and wherever cricket is played. He has been a member of the Committee for Cricketer of the Year Award set up by Pakistan Cricket Board under Lt Gen Tauqir Zia ®  and many such other committees and organizations.

Life wasn’t easy for him when he contracted cancer but he survived it. However, recently, he is again very sick (though reviving once again with sheer determination and support from his two children, daughter in law and friends/relatives). We all wish him great health and would very much want him back on his computer, writing those juicy comments and analysis synonymous to his name.


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