Before any big sporting event, the national anthem of the teams is played, which unites and inspires players to fight hard for the country. The ICC T20 World Cup 2022 follows the same approach, and fans have been treated to some magnificent anthems before the match.
Jonny Bairstow, England's wicketkeeper-batsman, spoke out over Sri Lanka's 'long' national anthem ahead of the match against New Zealand. The Lankan anthem lasts around two and a half minutes and features a beautiful tune and lyrics written by Ananda Samarakoon, a Rabindranath Tagore student.
Bairstow took to social media to express his feelings over the Sri Lankan national anthem, which was sung before the game against New Zealand.
“Is the Sri Lanka National Anthem the longest in the world? Some people can’t remember 1 verse of the English and don’t know the second! great effort!”, said Bairstow on Twitter.
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The Lankan Lions have one of the longest anthems among the list of cricketing nations. Interestingly, another Asian side, Bangladesh tops the the list of the longest anthems with an undefeatable duration of 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
This is how Twitter reacted:
Meanwhile, talking about New Zealand vs Sri Lanka game, the last year’s finalists registered an easy victory. Batting first, the Kiwis reached 167/7, courtesy of Glenn Phillips‘s hundred. In reply, the 2014 winners had a horrible start as they lost four wickets after scoring only eight runs. They could never recover from the early jolts and were restricted to 102 all-out. Trent Boult took four wickets in the game.
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