Longest national anthems amongst cricketing nations

2) Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka just missed out on the top spot in this list

The Asian Lions are at No. 2 in this anthem-a-thon. A very interesting and less known fact – the composer of the two and a half minute long “Sri Lanka Matha”- Ananda Samarakoon, was a student of Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan, and it is said that Tagore too had a substantial contribution towards the lyrics and tune.

And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out – start listening to the anthem and it starts with almost the same tune as the “Uchhala Jaladhi Taranga” part of our anthem. Interestingly the anthem has official versions in 2 languages – Sinhalese and Tamil, the latter in use in some of the northern parts of the island nation.