Whether by accident or design, the long-awaited report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket has landed in the very same week England are taking on Australia in a must-win Ashes Test match at Lord’s where the champagne corks will be popping and the chinos burgundy. It certainly feels apposite.
Marylebone Cricket Club features heavily in the 317-page report that looks into racism, sexism and elitism in cricket – and not in the most flattering light. The MCC Foundation is praised for its work, providing 3,000 state-educated cricketers with free-to-access training and match play through a network of 74 hubs. But Lord’s is “still a home principally for men” and a symbol of “prestige” and “empire”. The fact that debate still rages over the Eton versus Harrow fixture, at a venue which has never hosted an England women’s Test match, “alarmed” the panel.
