coping with adulation

Edie: Coldplay's music has been described as 'sonic super-ballads' and as 'dirges for quarterlife wretches'. Is it the kind of thing you listen to before you're given the new ball on day one of a test match?

Chris S Martin: Well yes it's great music for its spiritual vigor. Often I find myself humming a piece from X and Y as I wander back to my mark. These days though I perform better if I've got a bit of Mongolian throat-singing on the iPod.

Edie: Professional sport is mostly a secular realm though, wouldn't you agree Chris?

Chris A J Martin: I think so yeah, and it makes me sad. Players are moral role models, not quite up there with musicians, but they've a responsibility. Sport dominates the airwaves, it's a bloated industry, but hardly any of the cash and attention is dedicated to helping out starving kids. If more athletes were as philosophical as Chris here, there wouldn't be all this hate and bad karma.

Edie: What about you Chris, can you tell us about the social and environmental issues you engage with in your work?

Chris S Martin: I'm a committed vegan, which I think a lot of the fans relate to. It can be difficult on tour though, the guys on the team tend to eat a lot of meat and dairy. Cricket is full of compromises in terms of harmful and non-sustainable equipment. Academy coaches used to let me bat without pads and other gear, so I didn't have to go synthetic. In internationals I don't have a choice, so I wear pads with an organic cotton shell and non-bleached merino stuffing. I'd still rather use a non-leather ball, but I haven't been able to extract much swing from my prototype bull-kelp cricket ball with kauri gum core.

Chris A J Martin: Right on.

Edie: Crickety types often seem to prefer the longer version of the game – tea drinking, serenity, nice white woolies and all that. Chris how do you reconcile your mystical side with the whizzy consumerism and helter-skelter that is one-day cricket?

Chris A J Martin: You approach it differently. Yes some fans scoff about the colourful pyjamas, the hit and giggle. But the players give off intense auras, and always try to visualise the crowd noise and sensation as part of a searing piano and vocals crescendo when I get back to my studio. The hordes miss the subtleties though. They aren't switched on to the beautiful soliloquies of, say, a Jamie Dalrymple skidder in the 35th over, or the tranquility and absence of antipathy that Chris here brings to the batting crease.

Edie: So to the world cup. Chris, you're a big cricket fan, any hopes to join the team in the Caribbean, and any chance you'll pick a winner for us?

Chris S Martin: I be feelin kinda irie mon, but the cellphone hasn't beeped yet to be honest. I'm at peace either way. I think I've been enjoying a good vibe with the Aces, and I would love to hop on a big silver bird and go play my game at the home of jah.

Chris A J Martin: Yes it's inelegant to speculate, but I'd love to see Bangladesh get a few results. I played a monsoon fundraising gig once, so I've some very, very dear friends from down that way. Gwyneth, Apple and I will head over and join the England team at the official March 26th banquet, to celebrate their passage through to the Super Eights.