Of all Britain’s long-established institutions, perhaps none is as idiosyncratic as the 230-year-old Marylebone Cricket Club. It is a members’ club, but not just any members’ club - the very initials MCC are evocative of the entire game: languid summer days and, for both better and worse, old-fashioned values.
As recently as the 1990s, MCC still largely retained its historic role of running cricket. Even now, having lost that role, the club still writes the laws of the game and still has enormous influence. Its home, Lord’s, is recognised as the world’s pre-eminent cricket ground. However, despite this, it is not the biggest and not necessarily the best, partly because Lord’s is quite cramped as a major sports venue.
So, to maintain Lord’s position as the finest ground in the world to watch and play cricket and to avoid being relegated to London’s third-biggest cricket venue, behind the ambitious Oval and the Olympic Stadium, MCC has recently put forward a recommendation to its Members on the subject of the redevelopment of Lord's Cricket Ground.
The debate as to whether or not to pursue an option to build residential flats at the Ground has produced one of the most bizarre and bitter disputes in sport over the last 18 years. Indeed, it has been so vicious that former Tory Prime Minster, Sir John Major – no stranger to dealing with robust differences of opinion – walked off the committee in disgust. That dispute is now to about to come to a head, and will be voted on by the Club's 18,000 strong membership at a special meeting to be held next month.
An MCC Committee recommendation to proceed with the next phase of development at Lord’s with the replacement of the Compton and Edrich Stands by adopting the MCC Masterplan and thus effectively ruling out the building of flats at the Home of Cricket, has been made following very clear feedback from MCC Members. This followed a wide consultation exercise and clear advice from the Club's Principal committees.
After completion of the first stage of the MCC Masterplan earlier this year, which resulted in the opening of a new £25m Warner Stand, the replacement of the Compton and Edrich Stands, if voted in favour by the Club’s members, is projected to start in 2019 and will be completed in June 2021. This would lead to an increase in the Ground's capacity, improved facilities and better circulation for spectators.
This fractious debate has been a distraction from the good work done by the MCC in the promotion of cricket in the broader community.
It has a burgeoning Community Development programme, with initiatives ranging from coaching in over 30 local state schools to hosting monthly dementia awareness sessions for local residents. This means that MCC continues to reach out to people who may never before have visited Lord's. Ending the 'residential' debate at Lord's will mean that MCC can focus even further on providing such benefits to the London community. It is timely and welcome that this dispute should be resolved as soon as possible.
