New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) In a historic first, India’s national song Vande Mataram was played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium ahead of the national anthems of both India and Afghanistan before the first T20I began on Sunday.

As players from both sides lined up on the field prior to the match, the venue echoed with Vande Mataram before the Indian national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, was played. The national anthem of Afghanistan was also performed as part of the pre-match protocol.

The move comes a month after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued comprehensive guidelines regarding the observance and rendition of Vande Mataram, which translates to ‘Mother, I Bow to Thee’.

According to the initial MHA directive issued on January 28, the ministry notified the first formal set of protocols for singing the national song, directing that six stanzas of it be sung at official functions.

“The main rule also states that the National Anthem must be played after the National Song, which has a set duration of 190 seconds,” the directive specified, adding that ‘people must be attentive when the song is played at official events.’

The guidelines issued by the MHA listed a set of events and situations in which the national song had to be sung before the national anthem, but they originally did not explicitly include sporting events.

Vande Mataram was sung in full for the first time on August 15, 2026, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort, with a run time of three minutes and 20 seconds.

Written and published in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875 and later published in 1882 as part of his famous novel Anandamath, Vande Mataram holds an iconic place in India’s freedom struggle.

But the ongoing game on Sunday, where India have taken the early edge by dismissing half of Afghanistan’s batting order in the first ten overs, marked the first time the newly framed protocol was integrated into an international cricket game in India, though it left some fans surprised.

“You can see the Home Ministry guidelines, in which every event happening in the country has to have Vande Mataram sung before the national anthem. Everyone involved in the conduct of the game was aware of this,” a DDCA official told IANS.

–IANS

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