London mayor appeals for cricket, music for kids

London's new Lord Mayor, a passionate cricket fan who sang in a choir in his youth, announced on Monday a fund-raising appeal to bring music and cricket activities to disadvantaged youngsters across London.                                           

Nick Anstee, who took office as the 682nd Lord Mayor of London last week, set a goal of raising 2-4 million pounds ($3.34-$6.67 million) for his year-long "Pitch Perfect" appeal.

He said this would allow some 75,000 students over six years to get coaching and experience in playing cricket with experts from the Cricket Foundation, and to learn about music and instruments from members of the London Symphony Orchestra.

"When you look at the number of schools which don't have music or sport, competitive sport, on the curriculum these days for me it's a crying shame," Anstee, who will use his run in the London Marathon in April to raise funds for his appeal, told Reuters. 

The link between cricket and classical music might not seem blindingly obvious, but Anstee said both the Cricket Foundation, with its StreetChance initiative, and the LSO, through its LSO onTrack programme, were already going into the community and local schools.                                           

Anstee, 51, said it was his idea to get the two programmes to join forces, and to benefit from funds to be raised from the traditional year-long fund appeal mounted by the Lord Mayor, who serves a one-year term.                                           

"Bringing the two together, I think this is part of having a social conscience," Anstee said. Among the big names in music and cricket lending their support to the programme are conductors Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev, West End musical lyricist Sir Tim Rice, England and Surrey cricketer Mark Ramprakash, former England and Middlesex captain Mike Gatting and World Cup-winning England women''s captain Charlotte Edwards.