Marylebone Cricket Club, the custodians of Lord’s, has informed its members that the decision to remove Eton v Harrow and Oxford v Cambridge from its fixture list “did not arise as a result of any ‘anxiety to kowtow to the woke police’”.
MCC announced last week that the two fixtures between the public schools and leading universities would no longer be annually held at Lord’s from next year. The fixtures have been played between the teams at Lord’s since the 19th century.
MCC’s Chief Executive Guy Lavender wrote to the club’s 23,000 members on Tuesday saying this “was not a decision which was taken lightly”. He also did not discount the chance of the fixtures taking place at the ground in future, “such as to mark a significant anniversary or event”.
Lavender explained that the decision was made for two main reasons.
First, was to reduce the amount of cricket played on the ground because “the MCC’s overwhelming priority must be to ensure that we are able to deliver the highest quality pitches for professional cricket.
“All Members will recognise the importance of this objective; it is essential not just to maintaining the status of Lord’s as a major cricketing venue but for preserving and developing England’s competitiveness, particularly in the red-ball game. The expectations of professional teams are higher than ever and this is an area in which there is still much work for us to do.”
The second was a set of “guiding principles” for the fixture list.
“The fixture list has evolved over the years but this has been an organic process, for the most part, rather than with reference to a central rationale,” said Lavender.
Those principles are:
- More “Finals-Day” matches, creating “the Road to Lord’s” in current or new competitions;
- Greater diversity of teams;
- More playing opportunities for female cricket;
- More playing opportunities for junior cricket;
- Cricket for MCC Playing Members (male and female) on the Main Ground.
As a result, MCC “concluded that it was no longer sustainable to use two days’ cricket on the Main Ground to stage, on an annual basis, the same four institutions.”
Lavender responded to criticism of the decision from members and in the media, and said the club could not allow tradition to hold it back.
“This decision did not arise as a result of any “anxiety to kowtow to the woke police” as recently reported in the media,” he wrote.
“I have no doubt that Members wish to enable young people to play at Lord’s based on their talent and success in reaching the finals of competitions. Faced with constraints on the number of matches able to be played on the Main Ground, the Committee made this decision in support of this aim.
“Everyone on the Committee is acutely aware of the part traditions have played in the history of Lord’s and the development of the game more broadly. The best of that shared heritage is to be treasured and is abandoned at our peril, but we cannot let our history hold us back if we wish to maintain our relevance and purpose in growing cricket for all.”
