Ness Wadia, Kings XI Punjab’s co-owner, has proposed to BCCI to play the National Anthem before the start of every IPL match. In a conversation with PTI, Wadia said that he has earlier proposed the idea to BCCI and has written a letter to BCCI’s new President, Sourav Ganguly, as well. He also lauded BCCI’s move to scrap the opening ceremonies. The board will save Rs 30 Crore/year with this move.
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“It is an excellent move. It is high time that we don’t have an opening ceremony. I have always wondered about the value and necessity of hosting an opening ceremony. One thing which they (BCCI) should do is to have the national anthem before each game given that it is the Indian Premier League,” he told PTI.
As for now, the National Anthem is played before the start of the first match of every series as we saw in South Africa series. However, the National Anthem is played before the start of every match in the Indian Super League and Pro Kabaddi League. In PKL, a prominent personality sings India’s National Anthem. Few cricketers, including captain Virat Kohli, have sung National Anthem in PKL.
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It remains to be seen if the board agrees to the proposal. A decision on it is likely to be taken soon as the board’s members might meet again before the IPL auction which takes place on December 19 in Kolkata.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that KXIP will release R Ashwin. Wadia, in a conversation with PTI recently, had said that both the parties decided to part ways amicably. While nothing has been confirmed, a report in Mumbai Mirror had recently suggested that Ashwin is moving to Delhi Capitals in exchange for two players.
Delhi will trade their pacer Trent Boult and all-rounder Jagadeesha Suchith to the Punjab-based franchise and will also pay Rs 1.5 Crore for Ashwin. At Delhi, Ashwin will join likes of captain Shreyas Iyer, Amit Mishra, Shikhar Dhawan, who had himself moved to his home team from Sunrisers Hyderabad before IPL 2019.