A song and dance about bat and ball
This week on What We're Watching, we bring you the music of cricket
Members of the West Indian team record a song in a studio in 1976 • PA Photos
Lord Beginner's calypso "Victory Test Match", written after West Indies crushed England by ten wickets in the 1950 Lord's Test, is perhaps the greatest musical tribute to the game. For seven decades now, the words "Cricket Lovely Cricket", and the chorus, "With those two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine", have encapsulated the flair and laid-back rhythms of Caribbean cricket.
Quite a few cricketers are also excellent musicians. Sanjay Manjrekar doesn't disappoint with Kishore Kumar covers in his album Rest Day, which features him singing his and his India team-mates' favourite Bollywood songs.
A long-standing victory tradition in the Australia team is to belt out "Under the Southern Cross". Former wicketkeeper Rod Marsh initially led the singing of the song in the 1970s, and the honour has since been passed on to Allan Border, David Boon, Ian Healy, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Michael Hussey and currently Nathan Lyon.
Cricket broadcasting's most iconic tune is, of course, Brian Bennett's New Horizons, which accompanied Channel Nine's coverage of the sport for four decades. The tune heralded the arrival of every Australian summer, and thousands of cricket fans in the subcontinent woke up to it in the early hours of the morning. It has had several versions, most of which are compiled in this package.
The history of official tournament anthems in cricket got off to a rocky start when Dave Stewart's "All Over the World" was released at the most inopportune moment, the day after hosts England exited the 1999 World Cup.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84