Lord’s, the ‘home of cricket’ has been slow to welcome women

FOR more than 200 years the Marylebone Cricket Club proudly stood as one of this country’s most committed boys-only institutions.

Anyone who has seen the sort of people wearing the club’s famous red and yellow – affectionately known as the “egg and bacon” – colours around NW8 on matchdays may have sensed an air of pomposity about this exclusive club.

It was not until 1998 that the MCC finally took a plunge into the unknown and agreed to allow women to apply to be members, after a motion was won on two-thirds majority vote.

But since that historic day, due to a system of “organic growth”, very few have actually made it into the hallowed area of Lord’s historic pavilion. In fact, it was not until 2018 that the first woman actually made it to the top of the club’s long waiting list.

Today there are 512 full members who are women, just 2.73 per cent of the total, with 18,257 men. At the current rate, the MCC will achieve a 80:20 per cent male-to-female split by 2075.

The first-ever England’s women’s Test match is due to be held at Lord’s next year and as a result the MCC has started taking a firm look at itself in the mirror.

There was a fulsome debate at the MCC’s annual general meeting last week, according to former London Assembly member Murad Qureshi, himself a member. `

Murad Qureshi

“Having recently assisted a woman’s applica­tion, I was interested in what progress was being made,” he said. “The women’s and girls’ game is one of the fastest-growing areas across cricket and all sports.

“At present rates of candidates awaiting election you will have to wait approxim­ately 30 years before becoming a full member, if you joined today. So ‘organic growth’ won’t be enough and a special effort needs to be made. Safe to say, there was a consensus certainly that something had to be done.”

As with football, there has been a special effort to grow the game among schoolchildren. The Extra had reported on efforts to create a “gender-balanced sport” in 2020 with the launch of a domestic cricket league. It is believed that a third of the spectators at the ground are now women.

But in 2023 the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket said in its report that the MCC had a pivotal role to play in eradicating sexism from the game.

MCC chief executive Rob Lawson, chair Mark Nicholas and president Lord King are said to be among those who have made the issue a priority.

A statement from the club said: “MCC operated as a men-only club for the first 211 years of its existence, until 1998, when the club’s member­ship voted to welcome women to join them as members.

“By encouraging women to become members and to particicipate on our commit­tees, we are creating a fair and equitable environment that enables MCC to benefit from a greater variety of perspectives and contributions.”