Israeli writes cricket, boxing song hits

ISRAELI WRITES CRICKET ANTHEM SONG HIT

David Ben Reuven has been a cricket lover ever since he can remember from his childhood days growing up in London, studying at the French Lycee and going on to study Modern Languages in Cambridge University. His love of cricket paralleled his growing love of Israel and Jerusalem where he settled in 1966 and continues to this day where he zealously follows the world cricket news on the Internet. So one might say that cricket, like Judaism, is in David’s blood and to prove it he has written and recorded a cricket anthem and tribute to his beloved sport and its worldwide popularity called Let’s Play Cricket.

It should be mentioned here that even before making Aliya, immigrating to Israel, David was already writing songs and aspiring to be a kind of combination of Elvis and Cliff which so far has not transpired. But even while making a precarious living as a publisher of English-teaching newspapers for the Israeli school system and currently working as a translator-editor, he continued to write and record his songs and to date has no fewer than 250 of them on YouTube, including songs about Jerusalem , the Bible, Zionism, Just William, Herzl etc and also several catchy and unique sports songs including Maradona, Manny Paquiao, Tiger Woods, Maccabi Tel Aviv and last and by no means least Let’s Play Cricket which can be seen on Youtube with an excellent video by Yaacov Goldman.

The song lyric reflects his love of the game and of legendary cricket giants of his youthful years in England: W.G.Grace, Don Bradman. Len Hutton, Dennis Compton, Jim Laker, Richards but it also reflects the unique atmosphere and dreamlike and colorful scenery so inescapably associated with the game from the bat and ball and stumps to the green pitch and the white flannel garments of the teams in the field.

This catchy, captivating ditty also has its serious side as we see from the last few lines of the song lyric – a call for peace-loving people all over the world to forget about war and conflict and listen to the message of cricket, the message of peaceful and enjoyable sport on the cricket field rather than on the battlefield.

Incidentally, it may surprise you to know that cricket has many enthusiasts in Israel, particularly in cities like Beersheba and Tel Aviv where there are many immigrants from such cricket-loving countries as Britain, Australia, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and so forth and there is even an Israeli Cricket Association that administers to the needs and schedules of Israel’s cricket clubs. Israel’s long standing contribution to cricket was acknowledged in 2014 with the election of the ICA chairman, Stanley Perlman, a veteran leading Israeli cricketer, to the board of the ICC International Cricket Council in Dubai.
So from the Land of the Bible, there has come not only a new cricket anthem but also an important new Israeli voice in world sport.

And of course let’s not forget that last week England won the Cricket World Cup by very narrowly beating New Zealand. So all the more reason to play this cricket anthem which you can also find on Youtube..

LET’S PLAY CRICKET
Words and music: David Ben Reuven
Let’s play cricket
It’s a beautiful wicket
Let’s play cricket
Let’s play cricket
Today….

We’ve got a team
Dressed in white
The pitch is green
It’s a beautiful sight
Everything’s ready for the big match
We win the toss
We’re going to bat
So….
Let’s play cricket…

Beautiful sound of ball on bat
The game goes on
The umpire’s hat
Wickets fall
The batsmen score
The crowd cheers
He hits a four
So….
Let’s play cricket….

Bedser bowls to Compton
Hutton hits a ton
Laker spins the Aussies out
Bradman’s full of runs
Edrich got a duck
England won the toss
I say, old man, tough luck!
Let’s play cricket….

SPOKEN:
Now here’s a message for humanity
How to save our planet from catastrophe
Tell all the people top forget about war
It’s time to listen to the Test match score
So….
Let’s play cricket…

Copyright David Ben Reuven, Jerusalem, 2018
Now here’s the Ben Reuven song with an extra punch in tribute to the Philippine boxing champion Manny Pacquiao who has just won another world title at the tender age of 40!

ROCK WITH THE PACMAN
Song tribute to Manny Pacman Pacquiao
Words and music: Ben Reuven

Rock them all Manny Pacquiao
Boxing maestro from the Philippines
You won fame and you’ve won honor
Beyond your wildest dreams

Manny Pacman Pacquiao
The all-time boxing great
The poor man’s son from Santos City
Manny Pacman Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao, Manny Pacquiao
The pride of the Phillippines.

No one can box like the Pacman
He’s a total fight machine
He’s got speed and he’s got power
Like no one’s ever seen

Before him all the mighty fall
Defeat their common fate
The Pacman pulverizes them all
Champion in 8 divisions of weight

One by one the big names fall
Before the power of his fists
The Pacman pulverizes them all
He packs a punch that none can resist

Rock the ring Manny Pacquiao
About your glory we shall sing
Loud and clear for all to hear
The boxing legend beyond compare

Actor singer and congressman
Manny excels in everything
No limit to what he can
In and out of the boxing ring

And finally, and by no means least, let’s pay tribute to Israel’s wonderful Under-20 Basketball team who last week beat the top European basketball teams, including France and Spain, to win their second European Under-20 Championship in a row. A tremendous victory for Israel and a great big Mazal Tov for Israeli sport! Ben Reuven, better start work fast on the Israeli Under-20 victory song!