GEORGE DOBELL: There was no Jay Shah or Sanjog Gupta at World Cricket Connects and, therefore, not much point in a collection of notable voices convening at Lord's to discuss the future of the sport
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Posted by Paddy Briggs on 10/06/2025 at 18:18
As an MCC member I take an interest in such events not least because the Club funds them - effectively with my and my fellow members’ money! MCC suffers from the delusion that it has a role to play in the governance of world cricket. Of course it did once when the Club’s President was, remarkably, also President of the Imperial (later International) Cricket Council. But those days are long gone. Today the “Home of Cricket” (one of the Club’s many vanities) is closer to Mumbai than it is to Lord’s. Power in cricket has shifted irreversibly to the commercial controllers of T20 - essentially the India Premier League. The international fixture list is controlled not from Dubai but from Mumbai. Lord’s has no part to play in this. That the MCC still controls the Laws of Cricket is a quaint anachronism more honoured in the breach than in the reality. Once held power is hard to surrender especially when you believe that the heart of cricket is the quiet buzz of a contented Lord’s crowd replete and relaxed on a Test Match Saturday. Once upon a time. Today it’s a full Indian stadium, under the lights, as the batters of the Darjeeling Dropouts clouts maximums and the lights flash and the fireworks light the sky. Oh my Hornby and my Barlow long ago…
Posted by Accylad on 09/06/2025 at 20:17
What's the point indeed, George? What's the point of *anything* in the current conjuncture of a cricket world going through the motions but with absolutely no idea of what they want to achieve?
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