Marylebone Cricket Club - MCC Today

MCC Today

MCC teams continue to play regularly, occasionally still at first-class level. The club has traditionally produced its MCC Coaching manual, a bible for cricket skills, and runs training programmes for young cricketers, including at its Indoor Centre at Lord's.

MCC also continues to tour around England, playing matches against various state and private schools. This tradition has been followed since the 19th century. The club also has a real tennis and a squash court, and active golf, bridge and backgammon societies.

Often viewed as overly staid and pontifical (i.e. "Establishment"), the club has of late improved its image in the eyes of the public and media, partly because it remains a citadel for tradition in a fast-changing landscape and partly because it has made a concerted move towards image-improvement. "It would be overstating things to claim that the MCC has come full circle," admitted Andrew Miller at the beginning of October 2008, "but at a time of massive upheaval in the world game, the... colours of NW8 have ceased to represent everything that is wrong with cricket, and instead have become a touchstone for those whose greatest fear is the erosion of the game's traditional values."

In April 2008 in Mumbai, the Indian Premier League, viewed by some as the very antithesis of MCC, pledged its allegiance to the club's Spirit of Cricket campaign. Since then, the MCC has embraced and indeed promoted T20 at Lord's.

The MCC is at present (as of June 2012) a private members club (and thus an unincorporated association). This status has several limitations. Since an unincorporated association is not a legal entity, it cannot own property (such as Lord's Cricket Ground itself) in its own name. It cannot sue anybody, or indeed be sued (any legal action has to be taken against the Secretary & Chief Executive personally). In the event that a claim was successful, the committee and even the members themselves woud have to fund any financial shortfall. The club has called a Special General Meeting to consider petitioning the Queen in Council to incorporate the club by Royal Charter. This would remove many of the barriers and simplify the administration of the club.