"I'm flabbergasted by all the interest, frankly," says The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon about his upcoming album, The Duckworth Lewis Method. The reason? It's all about cricket.
Hannon told The Scotsman that he can't imagine why anyone should be interested in his collection of songs about "the king's sport", as he calls it, which was recorded with the folk artist Thomas Walsh of Pugwash, and features tracks such as Test Match Special, The Nightwatchman and Jiggery Pokery. But should he really be surprised by the interest in an album about the most popular bat and ball sport in the world?
Sport and music have been entwined since Vivaldi, Haydn and Berlioz wrote melodies for hunts, and cricket has found its way into popular song more often than you might think. Cricketers appear on the title page of Matthias von Holst's Village Rondo written in 1812, while in the modern era, Roy Harper has given the world When An Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease. Then there's 10cc's Dreadlock Holiday, The Kinks' Cricket, Paul Kelly's Bradman, and I-Roy's Tribute to Michael Holding. There are so many songs about cricket, in fact, that in 1981 David Allan wrote a book called, handily enough, A Song for Cricket.
Cricket is not the only sport that find its way into song. We have composed a list of the five best songs inspired by or in honour of sports as diverse as football, boxing, cycling and athletics. Hannon, prepare to be flabbergasted some more.
1. World in Motion by New Order and the England 1990 World Cup Squad
Blurb: The best football song ever made. OK, so there's not a tonne of competition.
When New Order assembled the England football squad to sing "Eng-ger-land!" (practically their only contribution to the song), they were appalled. Despite being sportsmen at the height of their powers, certain members of the 1990 World Cup squad appeared to act more like world-class party animals during their stint in the studio. Perhaps it was fitting given that the lyrics were penned by Lily's dad, the comedian Keith Allen.
Sample lyric: "We ain't no hooligans; this ain't a football song," raps John Barnes. Are you sure?
They said: "It's a song that uses soccer as a metaphor for raving and resistance." - Pictchfork.com
2. Tour De France by Kraftwerk
Blurb: Four Düsseldorf modernists sing about cycling in French. It shouldn't work, but it does.
When the band leader Ralph Hutter took up cycling, he wanted to base an entire album around his new hobby. Meeting perhaps understandable resistance from the other members of the group, he settled on just the one song. But during the recording Hutter had an accident and lay in a coma for days. When he recovered, two things had changed: he was now utterly obsessed with cycling and, incredibly, he and his Teutonic bandmates were being hailed as the godfathers of hip-hop. As the techno ace Carl Craig later commented: "They were so stiff, they were funky."
Sample lyric: "Crevaison sur les paves/Le velo vite repare/Le peloton est regroupe/Camarades et amitie". Translation: "Flat tire on the paving stones/The bicycle is repaired quickly/The peloton is regrouped/ Comrades and friendship." They don't write lyrics like that anymore.
They said: "They changed pop music forever." - Rolling Stone
3. When Saturday Comes by The Undertones
Blurb: The song that launched a great football magazine and a less-than-great football film.
Ironically, The Undertones' song is not strictly about football (it barely makes any sense), but it's easy to see why many thought it was. The Derry, Northern Ireland, band were football mad - in line with their teen image - and the song's title sums up the excitement and expectation around a big match. The "half decent football magazine" of the same name suggested that football fans could be smart and funny. The movie, which starred Sean Bean, Emily Lloyd and Pete Postlethwaite, was panned as "Roy of the Rovers meets Emmerdale Farm" by Time Out magazine.
Sample lyric: "Everywhere there's sceptic magazines/Shooting different colour jelly beans."
They said: "The Undertones had the fierce passion of rock 'n' roll believers." - The New York Times
4. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
Blurb: The boxing song's knockout punch.
Commissioned by Sylvester Stallone for the third movie in his boxing franchise, Rocky, the song has captured the emotional arc of every pugilistic or sporting confrontation ever since. In fact, Eye of the Tiger's cultural reach is staggering: the rappers Ice Cube and DMX have covered it; The Simpsons has lampooned it; and even the Jonas Brothers have got in on the act, recording a version that was recently pummelled by fans and critics alike. Today, Eye of the Tiger is the official theme of the Australian National Rugby League Team the Wests Tigers, but they don't use the original version as heard in the film. That featured a growling tiger.
Sample lyric: "Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past/You must fight just to keep them alive!"
They said: It won an Academy Award for best original song in 1982.
5. Stars of Track and Field by Belle and Sebastian
Blurb: A sports song for softies.
Despite sounding like a big girl's blouse, the lead singer Stuart Murdoch once toyed with the idea of becoming a competitive long-distance runner. This paean to the "beautiful people" who are good at sports at school can't decide whether it loathes them or is secretly in love with them. It settles on admiring them from afar.
Sample lyric: "Could I write a piece about you now that you've made it?/About the hours spent, the emptiness in your training/You only did it so that you could wear your terry underwear/And feel the city air run past your body."
They said: "They're one of the biggest cult bands in indiedom." - Pitchfork.com
New schools in Dubai
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 1
Kane (50')
Newcastle United 0
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
BACK%20TO%20ALEXANDRIA
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
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