Marylebone Cricket Club
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| Founded: | 1787 Current ground occupied since 1814 |
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| Home ground: | Lord's |
| Official website: | www.lords.org/mcc |
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lord's in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its global functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its English governance passed to the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) at the same time.
MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them (from time to time), and remains the copyright holder.
Since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any given match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894; and official first-class status from 1895. MCC has never played in a List A match.
MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lord's, this being a first-class match. MCC sides regularly tour overseas to all cricket-playing nations and to developing ones as well, e.g. Afghanistan in 2006, and the club has an extensive fixture list every season throughout Britain, particularly with schools.
The exact date of MCC's foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. According to Pelham Warner, the White Conduit Club was formed in 1782 as an offshoot from a West End convivial club called the Je-ne-sais-quoi, some of whose members frequented the White Conduit House in Islington and played matches on the neighbouring White Conduit Fields. Many of its members soon became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was "too public". They asked Thomas Lord, a professional bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London; they guaranteed him against any financial losses. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there and soon afterwards renamed themselves as "the Mary-le-bone Club". There was a match at Lord's starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club (the scorecard and other details are lost). In 1837, a South v North match was staged at Lord's to commemorate the MCC's Golden Jubilee, Warner describing it as "a Grand Match to celebrate the Jubilee of the Club" and reproducing the full scorecard which can also be seen in Cricket Archive.
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