India, Sept. 13 -- For the first time in history, Vande Mataram, India's national song, was played at the venue before the national anthem at the Arun Jaitley Stadium ahead of the first T20I against Afghanistan on Sunday. The poem, first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's Bengali novel Anandamath, was performed at the venue ahead of the national anthems of both teams. Once the entire national song was completed, India's and Afghanistan's national anthems followed.

This development came a month after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued guidelines, requiring official events to play the first six stanzas of Vande Mataram. The main rule also states that the National Anthem must be played after the National Song, which has a set ...