A lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek show running 30 minutes, its plot was set against the backdrop of the semi-fictional Headingley Cricket Club, whose star player, Donald, is torn between his team and his girlfriend Emma – as she decides to abandon watching cricket for what appears to be a far more exciting life at the race track with the caddish Vincent.

Cricket is, to date, the final original musical written by the team of Lloyd Webber and Rice.

After their collaboration on Evita in 1978, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice took what was originally intended to be a temporary break from their theatrical partnership.

Prince Edward, the Queen's youngest son, commissioned a short musical from Lloyd Webber and Rice for his mother's 60th birthday celebration.

He's hurt and truly torn – does he stay and bat to help his team win and lose Emma, or does he leave and try to get her back?

As he lies dazed on the ground, lines from various people and various moments of the game bombard him – Winston, Emma, Vincent, his team.

("The Making of St. Leger") He joins Donald and the game continues – to the amazement of the cricketers, who believed Vincent had no redeeming qualities.

("One Hot Afternoon") The show debuted as planned on 18 June 1986 at Windsor Castle, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Ian Charleson, Sarah Payne, and John Savident.

A segment of the original rehearsals of Cricket was televised on the Andrew Lloyd Webber instalment of The South Bank Show, which aired on 15 November 1986.

The segment featured Sarah Payne and Alvin Stardust rehearsing "As the Seasons Slip Fruitlessly By" and "The Sport of Kings".

The melodies of "All I Ask of Life", "Fools Like Me", and the verses of "As the Seasons Slip Fruitlessly By" were adapted into "Anything but Lonely", "Mermaid Song", and the scene "George's House at Pau" in the 1989 musical Aspects of Love.

In addition, "One Hot Afternoon" and the chorus of "As the Seasons Slip Fruitlessly By" eventually became "As If We Never Said Goodbye", and a bridge for "This Time Next Year" in the 1993 musical Sunset Boulevard.

[6][7][8] This meant that Cricket, which had been extremely well received, was a dead item and could never be expanded into a full theatrical musical, a fact that greatly distressed Tim Rice.

[11] The opening number, "The Summer Game", was recorded in 2011 by the men's vocal group Cantabile for their album Songs of Cricket.