4 minute read
We’ve loved official World Cup theme songs ever since Who Rules The World in 1992. Rock hasn’t come much softer and theme songs haven’t come much more naff. We suspect it’ll never be beaten. If you’re wondering how the 2026 T20 World Cup’s Feel The Thrill by Anirudh Ravichander measures up, well, it’s better than you’d think – at least when measured by the correct metrics.
Let’s frame this.
In 1971, England recorded The Ashes Song to celebrate their victory Down Under.
Just marvel at its “this’ll do” lyrics.
When we arrived people said
The Aussies would leave us for dead
But we knew we would prove them wrong
And that’s why we’re singing this song
Oh! The feeling is great
For losing is something we hate
The Ashes Song very much set the lyrical bar for all subsequent cricket songs and thankfully it is a bar no-one has felt much inclined to raise in the many years since.
This is the kind of stuff we’re after here from our latest entry in this rich and prestigious lineage. Over to you, Feel The Thrill. (The English bits anyway. We are, alas, not qualified to comment on the Hindi.)
“This is our year”
That’s the first line of the song. It’s almost certainly a wonderfully banal opening, but you could, if you were feeling very generous, instead take it as a covert dig at the incredible frequency of ICC world events.
If it wasn’t your year for the world cups in 2021 (T20), 2022 (T20), 2023 (50-over) or 2024 (T20), and the 2025 Champions Trophy didn’t bring you any joy either… maybe 2026 is your year!
Failing that, there’s always 2027 (50-over).
The laziest rhyming this side of Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz
Lenny’s not on his own with this one, but he does earn a lot of points for getting pop music’s lamest rhymes in right at the very start of Fly Away (which is also a terrible song title).
“I wish that I could fly, into the sky, so very high,” sings Len, inconsequentially. After a momentary lull to allow the majesty of those words sink in with you, he follows them with a terrible lyric that is all his own: “Just like a dragonfly.”
Anirudh has also gone for a sky/high rhyme. We’re pretty sure his effort goes, “Dreams on backs with the best held high. One more ball and we touch the sky.”
You’ll note the reference to a ball there. That’s right! We’ve struck gold!
It’s…
Lyrics that explicitly (and awkwardly) reference specific aspects of cricket
Official World Cup songs want to be cool, but official World Cup songs also quite often want to make reference to cricket. Those twin desires simply cannot be accommodated.
Ordinarily, the former wins out and all cricket specifics are omitted in favour of abstract vibes-based triumphalism. Say lots of stuff about believing in yourself and triumphing against the odds and people can take that as being about the Netherlands beating England in that incredible final over in 2009 if they want to.
It’s an easy get-out. You can plausibly claim you’ve fulfilled your cricket song remit, yet you haven’t undermined your track by saying ‘googly’ or ‘Mitch Marsh’.
However, on this occasion Anirudh has quite admirably gone the other way. He mentions bats and pads and all sorts. Crucially, he does all this without putting in any lyrical effort whatsoever.
This is probably our favourite bit.
Eyes on the World Cup
Hands in the air
Born for this moment
T20 vibes everywhere
It’s not quite up there with the bit in Who Rules The World where the fella literally just lists each of the nations who took part in the 1992 World Cup, but it’s unarguably cut from similar cloth – specifically, the ‘let’s just say a few cricket things’ cloth.
Chris Woakes gets a look-in
One of the great things about using footage of previous World Cups in your cool video is that it’s that bit harder to keep everything on brand. There’s always an interloper or two.
It’s only the briefest moment, but it’s nice to see Chris Woakes dropped in there among all the sunglasses and fireworks. It’s slightly offputting that he looks like he’s just about to punch a small child, but fortunately it’s Chris Woakes, so you know that fear is unjustified. (Imagine if he did though! Entire world shaken.)
Phoning it in
Footage of songs (supposedly) being recorded is a music video staple because it’s exciting to see the very genesis of an artistic work.
This is somewhat undermined when the footage in question depicts the vocalist reading the lyrics from his phone for the recording.
Nothing says ‘knocked these out in five minutes while I was taking a dump this morning’ better than lyrics so vapid you didn’t even bother committing them to memory.
In summary
Feel The Thrill by Anirudh Ravichander is a classic of the oeuvre. 9/10
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