The feeling of patriotism can always be felt whenever the National Anthem is played. Cricketers enjoy that feeling before the start of an international match. In the current series in Sri Lanka, the national anthem of India and Sri Lanka was played before the start of the first ODI. But according to Dinesh Ratnasingham the media manager associated with the Sri Lanka team the national anthem will not be played in the next four one day matches.
Dinesh said:
“we have adopted the practice of singing National Anthem only at the beginning of each format of the game”. The National anthem will now be played on September 6th before the start of the T20 series.
“The practice of singing National Anthem was followed in the first ODI (on Sunday at Dambulla) and again it will be sung at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo before the commencement of the only T-20 match (6th September) on this tour. Rest of the venues will have an immediate start of the match without the Anthem Ceremony.”
National anthem inherits a feeling of pride in the players. At all the ICC events the national anthem is played before every match. And to keep that feeling continued, cricket boards in every country play the national anthem before the start of a match.
Interestingly, national anthems of India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka were written by the legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore. Sri Lanka will next travel to Pakistan for the first time after 2009’s horrific attack on the team by the terrorist at Lahore. Only Zimbabwe have toured the country since then. Another tour proposed to travel Pakistan is the world XI tour.