The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is an English cricket club founded in 1787, whose Lord's headquarters are dubbed "the Home of Cricket".
Lord's Cricket Ground has been owned since Victorian times by MCC, which served as cricket's governing body from 1788 to 1909 and retains considerable global influence. Thomas Lord first established a cricket ground at Dorset Fields in Marylebone. Lord's Cricket Ground relocated in 1814 to nearby St John's Wood, historically in Middlesex and now in the City of Westminster, London NW8.
In 1788, the MCC assumed oversight for the Laws of Cricket, issuing a revised version that year. Changes to these Laws are nowadays determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with copyright retained by MCC. Established in 1909, the ICC was administered for eighty years by the Secretary to Marylebone Cricket Club and chaired by the MCC President ex officio.
MCC was given responsibility for organising England Test cricket overseas tours commencing with the 1903–04 tour of Australia and ending with its 1976–77 tour of India, both being victorious. England also played non-international matches overseas under the auspices of MCC.
In 1993, MCC transferred global cricket governance to the ICC, devolving domestic administration to the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB).
Retaining first-class status when MCC plays first-class opposition, the club continues to promote the game by fielding ad hoc MCC XIs from a pool of circa 2,000 playing members, varying standards accordingly.
The outgoing MCC president, the Lord King of Lothbury , nominated Ed Smith as his successor for 2026.
History and role The origin of MCC was as a gentlemen's club that had flourished through most of the 18th century, including, at least in part, an existence as the original London Cricket Club, which played at the HAC cricket ground in the mid-1700s. Many of its members left for the Hambledon Club during the 1770s and then, in the early 1780s, returned to London's environs when the White Conduit Club began playing cricket in Islington. It is not known for certain when the White Conduit was established but it seems to have been after 1780 and certainly by 1785. According to Sir Pelham Warner, it was formed before 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, a prominent venue for cricket in the 1720s.Warner, p. 17.
Arthur Haygarth states in Scores and Biographies that "the Marylebone Club was founded in 1787 from White Conduit members" but the date when it was established "could not be found".Haygarth, p. 68. This gentlemen's club convened for multi-purpose social meetings at the Star & Garter Inn on Pall Mall. Having undertaken to draft the Laws of Cricket at various times, most notably in 1744 and 1774, the White Conduit soon vested such law-making with the MCC as the final repose of cricketing gentlemen. At the White Conduit Club's outset, its leading lights were George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham (1752–1826) and Colonel the Hon. Charles Lennox (1764–1819), who later became the 4th Duke of Richmond. The White Conduit was nominally an exclusive club that only "gentlemen" could play for, but the club did engage professionals and one of these was Thomas Lord, recognised for his business acumen (being a successful wine merchant) "as well as his bowling ability".Haygarth, p. 70.Birley, p. 47
The New Club may have continued there, save that White Conduit Fields was an open area where the public, including rowdier types, could watch cricket matches and voice their opinions on the play and players. The White Conduit members were not amused by such interruptions and decided to seek their own enclosed venue. Lord Winchilsea and Colonel Lennox asked Lord to find a new ground offering him a guarantee against any losses he may suffer in the venture.Altham, p. 51. Lord took a lease from the Portman Estate on Dorset Fields where Dorset Square is now sited; and prepared the ground opening in 1787. Initially called the "New Cricket Ground", being nearby "the New Road" in Marylebone when the first-known match was played there on 21 May, by the end of July 1787, it was known as Lord's. As it was in Marylebone, the White Conduit members who relocated there soon decided to rename themselves the "Mary-le-bone Club". The exact date of MCC's foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787.Warner, p. 18. On 10 & 11 July 1837, a South v North match was staged at Lord's to commemorate the MCC Golden Jubilee. Warner described it as "a Grand Match to celebrate the Jubilee of the Club" and reproduced the full scorecard.Warner, pp. 28–29.
On 25 April 1787, London's Morning Herald newspaper carried a notice: "The Members of the Cricket Club are desired to meet at the Star & Garter, Pall Mall, on Mon., April 30. Dinner on table exactly at half past five o'clock. N.B. The favour of an answer is desired".Buckley, FL18C, p.110. Its agenda unspecified, only three weeks later on Saturday, 19 May, the Morning Herald advertised: "A grand match will be played on Monday, 21 May in the New Cricket Ground, the New Road, Mary-le-bone, between eleven Noblemen of the White Conduit Club and eleven Gentlemen of the County of Middlesex with two men given, for 500 guineas a side. The wickets to be pitched at ten o'clock, and the match to be played out". No post-match report has yet been found but, as G. B. Buckley states, it was "apparently the first match to be played on Lord's new ground".
A total of eight matches are known to have been played at Lord's in 1787, one of them a single-wicket event. The only one featuring the Mary-le-bone Club took place on Monday, 30 July. It was advertised in The World on Friday, 27 July 1787: "On Monday, 30 July will be played (at Lord's) a match between 11 gentlemen of the Mary-le-bone Club and 11 gentlemen of the Islington Club".Buckley, FL18C, p.115. "This is the earliest notice of the Marylebone Club" according to Buckley and as with Lord's inaugural fixture, no post-match report of MCC's inaugural game survives.
Grounds
There have been three Lord's cricket grounds: the original on the Portman Estate and two on the Eyre Estate. All three sites lie to the west of Regent's Park in London. Thomas Lord leased the original ground, now referred to as Lord's Old Ground, from the Portman Estate in 1787 and MCC played there until 1810 when Lord, after objecting to a rent increase, decided on terminating the lease to lift his turf and move out. Over 200 matches were known to be played there, mostly involving MCC and/or Middlesex XIs. Lord's Old Ground was on the site now occupied by Dorset Square, just east of Marylebone Station and west of Baker Street. To commemorate MCC's association, a plaque was unveiled at Dorset Square on 9 May 2006 by Sir Andrew Strauss.
With advance knowledge of the Portman Estate's intention to lease its land for building houses commanding much higher rents of over £600 per annum, on 15 October 1808, Lord secured two fields on the North Bank area of the St John's Wood Estate, which belonged to Walpole Eyre (1773–1856), a local landowner after whom Eyre's Tunnel on the Regent's Canal was named.www.westminster.gov.uk Lord negotiated with the Eyres a rent of only £54 per annum for a term of eighty years, free of both land taxes and tithes.Warner, p. 18–19.
The new ground on the Eyre Estate was available from 1809 and so Lord had two cricket fields at his disposal for the 1809 and 1810 seasons. This North Bank ground was sub-let to St John's Wood Cricket Club which eventually merged with MCC.Warner, p. 19. Lord formally took over management of this second ground on 8 May 1811 there relaying his turf from the Old Ground. He did this so that "the noblemen and gentlemen of the MCC should be able to play on the same footing as before". According to Warner, Lord's relocation proved unpopular among many MCC members with the upshot that the club played no matches there throughout 1811 and 1812. Whilst its situation may have not been ideal, cricket generally was in decline at the time because of the Napoleonic Wars; the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (the ACS) asserts that "(from) 1810 to 1814 the game was all but dead", largely because of the War and "the very real threat of civil unrest in England".ACS, Important Matches, p. 4. This second venue is generally known as Lord's Middle Ground. In the three years that Lord leased it, only six matches were known to have taken place, with just three (all in 1813) involving the MCC. Although the exact location of Lord's Middle Ground remains uncertain, it is understood to have been at North Bank to the north end of Lisson Grove where the Regent's Canal cut through. Thus situated partially on the canal's route somewhere in the area now bounded by Lisson Grove (the B507) to south-west, Lodge Road to north-west, Park Road (the A41) to north-east and the Regent's Canal to south-east, this cricket field was no further than from the present Lord's Cricket Ground.
Lord was forced to abandon plans for his Middle Ground after Parliament decreed the new canal's route in 1813. Lord, via his protégé Lord Frederick Beauclerk, approached the Eyre family who agreed to lease another plot nearby in St John's Wood, but at an increased rent of £100 per annum. Accepting the Eyres' new terms, Lord again relocated his turf which was re-laid in time for the start of the 1814 season. This third ground remains Lord's present home to MCC for over 200 years.
Alternative grounds From 1996 to 2008, the MCC played nine first-class and three List A matches against touring teams at cricket grounds other than Lord's:
Denis Compton Oval, Shenley, Hertfordshire: (1996–1999) 1996 vs South Africa A (first-class) 1996 vs Pakistan (list A) 1997 vs Pakistan A (first-class) 1999 vs Sri Lanka (first-class) University Parks, Oxford, Oxfordshire: (2000) 2000 vs New Zealand A (first-class) Savile Park, Castleford, Yorkshire: (2000) 2000 vs Zimbabwe (list A) Arundel Castle Cricket Ground, Sussex: (2001–2007) 2001 vs Australia (first-class) 2004 vs West Indies (first-class) 2007 vs Sri Lanka A (first-class) Queen's Park, Chesterfield, Derbyshire: (2002) 2002 vs Sri Lanka (first-class) The Racecourse, Durham: (2007–2008) 2007 vs West Indies (first-class) 2008 vs Bangladesh A (list A)
Laws of Cricket
MCC maintains responsibility for, and remains copyright holder of, the Laws of Cricket. Its Laws Sub-Committee is responsible for debating and drafting changes to the Laws, with the Main Committee then voting on any proposed amendments.
Membership
MCC has 18,000 full members and 5,000 associate members. Full Members enjoy voting rights and have access to the Pavilion and other stands at Lord's Cricket Ground for all matches played there; Associate Members' privileges are more restricted and vary on a case-by-case basis, but in broad terms they can attend most matches except major internationals.