Marylebone Cricket Club - Membership

Membership

MCC has 18,000 full members and 4,000 associate members. As would be expected with a private members' club, members have special rights to use the Pavilion and other stands at Lord's for all matches played at the ground.

In order to join the waiting list of candidates for membership one must obtain the vote (of which each full member has one a year) of three members, and the additional sponsorship of a person on the List of MCC Sponsors (which consists of members of all MCC Sub-Committees; MCC Committee; MCC Out-Match Representatives; and the Current, Past, and Designate President). As the demand for membership always outstrips supply each year (i.e., there being just over 400 places in 2005), there continues to be a substantial waiting list for Full Ordinary Membership, namely 20 years (although this compares favourably to the 30-year wait which was the norm in the 1920s). There are, however, ways to lessen the time it takes to become a full member: one may qualify as a Playing Member, or Out-Match Member (although this carries none of the privileges of membership, apart from being able to play for the club).

Alternatively, some are awarded Honorary Life Membership, although this honour is seldom given. Current Honorary Life Members include Wasim Akram, Mike Atherton, Dickie Bird, Sir Ian Botham, Keith Bradshaw, Aravinda de Silva, Andy Flower, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, David Gower, Sir Richard Hadlee, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Rachael Lady Heyhoe-Flint, Nasser Hussain, Glenn McGrath, Sir John Major, Henry Olonga, Barry Richards, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Hashan Tillakaratne, Michael Vaughan, Shane Warne and Waqar Younis.

The current British Prime Minister David Cameron is a Member.