MCC reins in Mark Nicholas hands

Article posted by Coliseum, May 12^th, 2023

Image: Lord's Cricket Ground

Mark Nicholas has been named as the next President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) (UK).

‘LORD’S’ stated that he will serve a 12-month term as the President, taking up the post on October 1^st, 2023. His appointment was announced by the current President, Stephen Fry, at the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held earlier on May 3^rd.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John’s Wood, London (UK). The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence.

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The 31,100-capacity Lord’s Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord’s, is a cricket venue in St John’s Wood, London (UK). Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of the Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the European Cricket Council (ECC) and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Lord’s is widely referred to as the ‘Home of Cricket’ and is home to the world’s oldest sporting museum.

The Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Middlesex which has effectively been subsumed within the ceremonial county of Greater London.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on January 1^st, 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council.

The European Cricket Council (ECC) is an international body which oversaw cricket in European countries other than the Test-playing cricketing nation of England, the only European Full Member of the ICC for the duration of the ECC’s existence.

Dubai (UAE)-based the International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England and South Africa. It was renamed as the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1987.

Nicholas, who was elected as a Member of MCC in 1981, is one of the most recognizable figures in televised cricket, leading coverage at the very top of the game across the world.

He moved into the media following his retirement as a cricketer when he played as a top-order batter and medium-pace bowler for Hampshire (UK) and captained England A.

‘LORD’S’ further stated that Nicholas scored over 25,000 runs – including an unbeaten 100 for MCC at Lord’s against the 1985 Australians – and took 173 wickets in a professional career spanning over two decades. He also captained Hampshire to four major trophies, three of which came in finals at Lord’s.

As a broadcaster, Nicholas anchored Channel 4’s acclaimed Test match coverage which began in 1999, and he was named as Sports Presenter of the Year in 2001 and 2005 by the Royal Television Society. Channel 4’s coverage concluded with England’s unforgettable men’s Ashes series victory in 2005 and he remained a permanent fixture on both sides of the globe for another 15 years, for Nine Network in Australia and Channel 5 in the United Kingdom.

He presently works for Supersport in South Africa, on TalkSPORT’s breakthrough radio coverage of England tours, and has previously featured on the world feed of the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament. Nicholas is a regular on ICC commentary teams for their global tournaments.

His writing skills are no less noteworthy. Nicholas joined the ‘Daily Telegraph’ upon hanging up his boots and went on to write a personal memoir (A Beautiful Game: My Love Affair with Cricket) that alongside other awards was chosen as the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year in 2017. His long-term friendship with the Late Shane Warne led to the pair co-authoring Warne’s compelling autobiography, ‘No Spin’, which was published to critical acclaim in 2018.

With Lord King of Lothbury at his side, Nicholas founded ‘Chance to Shine’, the charity that has done such a marvelous job in bringing cricket back into State schools. He remains fully involved and is looking forward to developing a closer relationship between ‘Chance to Shine’ and the MCC Foundation.

He first entered the MCC Committee Room while still a player, beginning a 10-year stint on the Cricket Committee in 1994. As well as three terms on the club’s main committee, he has also served on the Marketing and Laws, Spirit and Ethos sub-committees.

Nicholas said of his appointment: “You only have to glance at the line of the former Presidents of MCC to understand exactly what this honor means and what a privilege it is to receive it. I first watched cricket at Lord’s from behind the boundary rope on the outfield. I’ll get a smarter seat for a while now but will always wish I was still out there playing. What a game is cricket!”

Said Stephen Fry, the MCC President, “Mark Nicholas is as deeply steeped in cricket as anyone I know. His passionate love of the game allied to his experience as a player, captain and expert analyst will make him a wonderful President of MCC – with one eye on heritage and tradition, and the other on the future development and expansion of the game, to which he has devoted his life.”

The AGM held at Lord’s on May 3^rd was the second to be held in a hybrid format, with members attending in-person at the Ground as well as online.

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