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The good and bad points of the official song for the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20

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We always look forward to World Cup songs. If nothing else, it was in the background to one of them that we saw the greatest cricket banner of all time.

The one for the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 by Patrice Roberts and Shenseea is pretty much bang average.

It is called Watch This. There are good points and bad points.

The two main good points are:

(1) It appears to have actually been written for the tournament. There’s nothing worse than when they appropriate an existing song and try and pass it off as the official tournament song when it clearly isn’t. Sometimes the song isn’t remotely about cricket; it’s just got some vaguely positive aspirational lyric. Those ones are the absolute worst. This one is at least on-topic.

(2) They say the names of all the countries in turn. This is absolutely vital and something you should 100 per cent do in every official tournament song.

The two main bad points are:

(1) It’s the wrong musical genre. The all-time greatest cricket tournament theme song is the one for the 1992 World Cup, which all but redefined how soft rock could become while still remaining rock. (The guitar solo in particular is just extraordinary.) Soft rock is the correct musical genre for a World Cup song because it is the naffest and World Cup songs are just inherently naff. (The 1992 World Cup song also did shouting the names of the participating countries in turn far better than any other.)

(2) The ICC says that Watch This is “the rallying call for fans to support the tournament,” which comes across as a bit needy. We’d have called the song something like “Don’t Watch This, It’s Fine By Us – You’re The One Who’ll Be Missing Out.” This is less catchy, but thinking that the tournament can live without you just fine obviously makes it way more attractive.

In summary, the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20 song is far less questionable than the one for the men’s 2019 50-over World Cup with Freddie Flintoff in it.

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9 comments

  1. Going out on a limb here but from the first two bars I’m guessing it’s being held in the West Indies.

    1. Wrong!

      It’s actually being held in [checks]… No, sorry, you’re right. It’s being held in the West Indies.

  2. First class Europop with a Caribbean twist. I like the bit where you see the singer with a roll up stuck to her lip, or was it a lollipop.

  3. At 1m15s there is a player with “99” on their shirt whose name is recorded as “PINKY”.

    Amiright? Or amiwrong?

    And if I’m not seeing things, who is it?

    1. Nothing to add to this really.

  6. i think you are being over critical of this theme song. it has a catchy flavour and is identifying with the region that it is being hosted in. There is absolutely no rule on earth that dictates a theme song must be soft rock because it is nothing short of actually saying it has to be white peoples music in order for it to be acceptable. I totally disagree with your opinion however it is a free world you are allowed to have your own……

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