1 Johnny Cash — England cricket team The pill-popping, hard-living country titan who died in 2003 was not noted for his love, or even his awareness, of cricket. Even so, tickled by Ring Of Fire — a song that the Cash estate would not allow to be used in an advertisement for a haemorrhoid cream — the England team played the ditty during lunch breaks in the third Test in India last week, a match that they subsequently won to secure a drawn series. “It got the lads going and we came out afterwards with a spring in our step,” noted captain Andrew Flintoff. Man in white Matthew Hoggard is the man in black’s keenest fan.

2 Black Eyed Peas, The Proclaimers — Andy Murray No wonder Murray’s on-court mood swings are legendary. Before he goes out there he’s either listening to the Black Eyed Peas, featuring former crystal meth addict Fergie, or the less risque musings of bespectacled Scottish twins The Proclaimers, whose I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) is played at Easter Road when Murray’s beloved Hibs score — ie, not often.

3 John Daly — John Daly His chaotic life sounds like a country song, so in 2002 Daly cut out the middle man and made an autobiographical country album called My Life. It included a terrifying version of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, plus tracks entitled I’m Drunk and the haunting All My Ex’s Wear Rolexes. It wasn’t a hit, but he does play it before rounds and in his giant Humvee.

4 Eminem — England rugby union team Clive Woodward was so taken with Eminem’s Lose Yourself and its notion that “you only get one shot, do not miss your chance” that it became the England team’s soundtrack to their domination of international rugby, often played at ear-splitting volume. Naturally, it did the trick at the 2003 World Cup.

5 Tina Turner — Chris Eubank Eubank refused to leave his dressing room to fight until Tina Turner’s Simply The Best had been played. Many times. It played every time he walked out to do battle, except for his meeting with Nigel Benn in 1990, when, suspiciously, the tape refused to work. Eubank still won.

6 Goldie — the Wimbledon Crazy Gang When the Crazy Gang weren’t cutting up each other’s clothes and having (not so) mock fights on the training ground, they were connoisseurs of all sorts of music. Their favourite, however, was the relentless strains of jungle music as almost popularised by Goldie. Their party piece was to leave their dressing room door open and play it at full blast so that opposition teams could share the delights as Vinnie Jones shouted: “Let’s get the b*******” over the din.

7 Right Said Fred — Nadeem Shahid In a bid to make one-day cricket more appealing, each Surrey player is accompanied to the wicket by a theme song. Nadeem Shahid’s was the patently untrue I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred. In truth, he proved too sexy for his crease, such was the brevity of his tenure there. Even his teammates laughed.

8 Punk — Stuart Pearce In an era when footballers were allowed to like only George Benson, Stuart Pearce adored the punk of Stiff Little Fingers and saw The Stranglers almost 50 times. At Nottingham Forest he was the dressing room DJ and introduced his taste to his teammates. They didn’t argue.

9 Red Hot Chili Peppers — the British Olympic coxless four Even Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams needed inspiration in Athens 2004. It came from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under The Bridge, a heroin-addiction saga that inspired them to gold.

10 Strive Roots — Hannah Teter Few are familiar with the punk-reggae output of Strive Roots. American snowboarder Teter is, however. Roots singer Eli Lieberman is her beau and she played his band’s ballad Communicate on her iPod as she took gold in the Winter Olympics halfpipe.