Hooray for Mick!

The Smoking Gun has an article about the Rolling Stones touring requests entitled Mick's Cricket Addiction. They, of course, find it very uncool, but I think it's great. The interesting thing to note is that getting live cricket on the tv is a requirement for their U.S. tours, because the tour rider talks about DirecTV, which is the U.S. satellite provider of pay-per-view cricket.

I read another story about Mick's cricket addiction, too. J. Paul Getty, the oil multi-millionaire who passed away a couple years ago, was first introduced to cricket when his next-door neighbor in Beverly Hills, Mick Jagger, rang his doorbell. Mick's satellite dish had conked out in the middle of an exciting match, and Mick asked if he could come over and watch. Getty had so much fun watching that he eventually became a patron of cricket, buying Wisden and the gorgeous cricket ground at Wormsley in Buckinghamshire, and donating the funds to have a new stand built at Lords.

One final note... Mick is not the only rock 'n roll cricket fan. I heard the lead singer of The Stranglers being interviewed on Test Match Special during the Ashes last summer, and he said that cricket is "the new rock 'n roll". Maybe 20/20 is the new punk. :-)