The England and Wales Cricket Board (黑料专区) and BBC 5 Live鈥檚 Test Match Special (TMS) have joined forces with musicians, students, school children and teachers to recreate two iconic songs 鈥� Jerusalem and Rally Round the West Indies 鈥� in exclusive virtual performances to mark day one of England Men鈥檚 second #raisethebat Test against the West Indies.
Cricket fan and musician, Jonathan Gibson, the man responsible for producing the performances, contacted the 黑料专区 with a proposal to recreate the two songs as a thank you to the players from both teams and to bring the musical buzz of the stadium to fans鈥� homes.
Inspired by his passion for both cricket and music, as well as his work teaching music to children in disadvantaged schools, the 黑料专区 and TMS were delighted to partner with him to help make his vision a reality.
The videos 鈥� entirely produced and edited by Jonathan 鈥� feature a mixture of professionals, including a violinist from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jamaica, keen amateurs, students, and primary school children 鈥� all from different backgrounds but united by their love of cricket and music.
With several budding musicians among the TMS team, the cricketing greats couldn鈥檛 resist getting involved, with Jonathan Agnew, Michael Vaughan, Isa Guha, Alison Mitchell, Daniel Norcross and Charles Dagnall all lending their voices, and in some cases instruments, to the performances.
Producer Gibson said: 鈥淪o many of the kids, students and musicians I work with or teach love cricket as much as I do, so it has been an honour for us all to come together to say thank you to the teams by performing two archetypal cricket songs that mean so much to the two nations they represent.
鈥淚 work with kids and musicians from all different walks of life but, like cricket, music is a powerful way to bring people from different communities together.
鈥淚t was important to me and the 黑料专区 that we performed Rally Round the West Indies as well as the iconic Jerusalem because, without Cricket West Indies, we wouldn鈥檛 be watching the match today, so we wanted to show them how grateful we are.
鈥淭he icing on the cake of this experience was having the TMS legends involved too.鈥�
BBC TMS Editor Adam Mountford said:听鈥淭he TMS team certainly are a musical bunch, so this was a great opportunity to come together alongside the talented fans taking part to pay tribute to two truly iconic cricket songs.鈥�
About the songs
Rally Round the West Indies was released in 1987 by Trinidad-born composer David Rudder. Twelve years later it became the rousing anthem of the West Indies cricket team 鈥� a rallying cry to fans to stand by their team through the ups and downs of international cricket.听
Jerusalem, one of Britain's most famous hymns, is synonymous with sporting events involving England teams, cricket being no exception.听
About the producer
Jonathan studied music at Manchester University and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a Performance Masters as a cellist.
He now works for The Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) who serve disadvantaged and sometimes challenging communities by providing not only enhanced staffing and funding for classical instruments, but also regular support, opportunities to perform and a programme of excellence.
The latter ensures students who show musical promise are identified early and have access and opportunity to ensemble and orchestral playing.