My  last post looked at the 2022 accounts of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and concluded the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was giving the MCC too good a deal for staging international fixtures.  This post looks at what a reasonable deal might be, how easy it would be to get to better place and why it seems so unlikely that the ECB will achieve a fair deal. There's a school of thought: the best thing to do with the MCC and Lord's would be to scrap them.  But I'm not sure this would be desirable or practicable.  Not because of the tradition of Lord's as the "home of cricket" which is just guff, (it isn't the home of cricket - it's the home of the MCC) but because there is demonstrable demand for two test matches to be played in London.  To side line Lord's and build a new cricket stadium in London, or somewhere close to London doesn't seem feasible.  The ECB could always restrict London international matches to the Oval but it's ...

This is a post on the Marylebone Cricket Club's (MCC) annual accounts for the year to 31 December 2022 .   The MCC dates back to 1787 and is a curious institution. It is a private members club which owns Lord's cricket ground, is the custodian of the rules of cricket, and self - appointed guardian of the spirit of the game .  The merits of MCC's continued role and influence are sharply contested.  For some the MCC preserves old fashioned virtue in a modern, money mad, game; others look at an MCC membership which is posh, white, male, elderly, conservative and, probably, Conservative and conclude we need to to move on from both the MCC and Lord's central place in cricket's calendar.   In general I'm on the anti side of the MCC argument which is set out in this post on  "Being Outside Cricket"  but I should say: when I wrote a book on cricket the staff in the MCC library were both courteous and helpful.  This post largely lets the pros and cons...