Middlesex future at Lord’s touch-and-go – Coliseum

Image: Lord’s Cricket Ground, PaddyBriggs, Public Domain

The Middlesex County Cricket Club’s (MCCC) future at the Lord’s (St John’s Wood, London, UK) is in doubt with the club failing to secure a long-term extension of a tenancy agreement with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) (Owner of Lord’s) that expires this year.

‘The Guardian’ stated that after months of talks with the ground’s owners the Middlesex County Cricket Club are close to agreeing to a 12-month contract that will ensure most of their matches are played at the Home of Cricket next Summer but the club’s long-term future is uncertain.

The Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales (UK). It represents the historic County of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial county of Greater London.

The 31,100-capacity Lord’s Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord’s, is a cricket venue in St John’s Wood, London (UK). Named after its Founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of the Middlesex County Cricket Club (MCCC). Lord’s is widely referred to as the Home of Cricket.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground which it owns. The club, formerly the governing body of cricket, retains considerable global influence.

‘The Guardian’ further stated that the county’s two previous leases with the MCC were for five years with a 12-month deal raising eyebrows among the staff at both the clubs given the 13-time county champions have been tenants at Lord’s since 1864. A short-term agreement has been reached as an emergency measure but there is concern on both sides that the arrangements may not suit either party as has been reflected in the lengthy negotiations.

Middlesex have been troubled by a number of governance and financial problems in recent years with senior figures at the MCC believed to have expressed concerns about the way the county are run. There is also understood to be tension between some of the senior figures at the clubs.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) fined Middlesex £50,000 and gave them a suspended points deduction last September after finding them guilty of breaching financial regulations and in June the club were charged with improper conduct by the newly formed Cricket Regulator. A disciplinary hearing is understood to have taken place last month with Middlesex denying the charges.

London (UK)-based the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on January 1^st, 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council.

The Cricket Regulator is a body that monitors and enforces cricket regulations in the United Kingdom. It was established in December 2023 and is overseen by an independent Cricket Regulatory Board.

Stated a MCC source, “Every time Middlesex are in the newspapers there is a photograph of Lord’s, so there is a danger of reputational damage by the association.”

The Middlesex Chief Executive Andrew Cornish went public with his club’s concerns in April when he raised the prospect of moving to a new ground in North-West London although he later clarified his comments saying it would not happen “any time soon”.

Middlesex’s financial position has improved since Cornish took over in 2021 and this year they posted their first profit since 2016 of £131,000 although that was largely due to cost-cutting measures that have had a significant effect on performance. The club did not employ overseas players this Summer and missed out on promotion from Division Two of the County Championship having been relegated last season. The financial cuts appear set to continue with the opener Mark Stoneman released and no plans to recruit overseas players next season.

With Middlesex struggling on and off the field, the details of the existing agreement, under which the MCC pay their tenants several hundred thousand pounds each year to play at Lord’s in return for keeping matchday revenue, are also being reviewed. Having charged Middlesex rent and given the club gate receipts for almost 150 years, the two parties flipped the arrangement in signing a five-year deal in 2015 which was subsequently extended for another five years.

Middlesex’s crowds for the T20 Blast matches have declined significantly in recent years and this past season two of their games were moved to Chelmsford (City in England) which affected the MCC’s revenue. More Blast games could be moved next season owing to the demand from the other teams to play at Lord’s.

The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. It is the top-level Twenty20 competition in England and Wales.

The MCC sources further stated that they want Middlesex to stay at Lord’s but have given themselves more time to find a solution. Another factor that has influenced the delay is that the Marylebone Cricket Club are undergoing a period of significant change with a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to be appointed by the end of the year to replace Guy Lavender who is leaving to become the Chief Executive of the 67,500-capacity Cheltenham Racecourse in England.

The former Hampshire County Cricket Club captain Mark Nicholas took over as the Marylebone Cricket Club Chair on October 1^st having spent the past 12 months as the club’s President. The former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King is replacing Nicholas in that role.

The Hundred sales process is another complicating factor as the MCC are likely to have a new partner at Lord’s next year. The London Spirit are viewed as the most attractive of the eight franchises the ECB are selling 49% of with Mumbai Indians’ (a professional franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, India) Owners, the Ambani family (Mukesh Ambani, Nita Ambani and Aakash Ambani), expected to make an unbeatable bid.

The Hundred is a 100-ball cricket tournament involving teams in major Cities across England and Wales run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) which took place for the first time in 2021. The format was invented with the expectation that each match would last around two-and-a-half hours.

The London Spirit is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in North London. The team represents the historic counties of Middlesex, Essex and Northamptonshire in The Hundred which took place for the first time during the 2021 English and Welsh cricket season.

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