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Do you know the first test match was played in 1877 between England and Australia and ICC was formed in 1909 so how were both teams able to decide the rules and regulations of the match? Almost every cricket lover knows that England is the birth country of cricket and because Britishers have colonized many countries in the past cricket has spread around the world. When English people started playing cricket professionally they realized that they needed to decide some rules, regulations, and controls so that the game could be played fairly. Then in 1787, an organization named Marylebone Cricket Club was formed by Thomas lord who organized the first match between Middlesex and Essex on the Dorset field in Marylebone. Next year members of MCC have set up the laws of cricket which include the dimensions and rules of the play. Later in 1814, MCC made Lords Cricket Ground their home ground and since then Lords has been the permanent home of MCC. In 1993 after 84 years of formation of ICC, the governance has been shifted from MCC to ICC. laws of cricket have now been determined by ICC but it is still owned by MCC and only MCC can make any change. Let’s discuss some important key features of MCC
History
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MCC was formed in 1787 by Thomas Lord. In 1814 Lord made a ground in St John’s wood to their home and after being the head of the MCC for 38 years he retired and died seven years later. His name has been attached to that ground of St. John’s Wood after his death and then it became Lord’s Cricket Ground. In 1870 it became the home ground for county cricket and over 140 years still holds the position. MCC kept growing and developing cricket and in 1877 they went for a big step after sending a team led by James Lillywhite to Australia for the first official test match which was going to be held in Melbourn. Until the 1890’s there wasn’t any official recognition of Test matches so after many years the world has accepted this match as the first ever test match played. It was 1903 when MCC took the responsibility to organize England’s tour officially. In 1993 the Authority of International Cricket was transferred to ICC from MCC and the authority of England’s cricket team was transferred to ECB around 1998.
W.G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace was one of the most famous players of all time which initially played for MCC and gave it even more recognition globally. He was the first British sporting celebrity. He has played 22 test matches for his nation where he scored 1098 runs with two centuries. He played for MCC from 1869 to 1904, Gloucestershire from 1870s to 1899, and London County from 1900 to 1904. He played his first test match for England in 1880 and his last in 1899. After becoming a member of MCC in 1869 he wore the MCC’s signature red and yellow color for the rest of his career until 1904 and made it iconic. W. G. Grace is the most important person for MCC who helped the club to regain the Authority.
Laws of Cricket
This term is a reference to the code of rules in Cricket which is made by Marylebone Cricket Club to clarify some rules and regulations for fair play. Since 1788 the codes have been owned and maintained by MCC. There are a total of 42 codes in the Laws of cricket, the first code was added in 1744 to the list the recent code was added in 2017 whose’s 3rd edition was introduced in 2022. Laws of cricket are the base of cricket without them cricket can’t be played. Laws are still maintained by MCC and this is why ICC is not as strong as MCC.
Membership
The club has 18000 full members and 5000 associate members and the members own the grounds which come under MCC’s territory and it’s all assets. The club’s members are allowed to attend any played in three grounds in the lords which come under MCC. The club didn’t allow women members until 1998 when Colin Ingleby- Mackenzie who was in favor of Women’s membership in MCC became the president and convinced 70% of members in his favor. In 1999 five women were invited to join as playing members.
MCC plays around 480 games per year which is the highest for the cricket club. The club spends almost two million each in the development of the game like funding youth cricketers who can’t afford the expenses, extensive playing programs, and spreading the laws and spirit of cricket.
Colours
Before the colours you see in the flags and logos of Marylebone Cricket Club, there was a sky blue colour which represents MCC but it was replaced by red and yellow in Victorian times. There isn’t any specific explanation of why these two colours have been chosen but there are many theories that have been proposed to explain the reason for the colours. One of them is that the colours were borrowed by Wondering Club I Zingari which was founded in 1845. Despite the unknown reason of the origin, the MCC colours are the most famous club theme colours in the world and anyone can recognize it who loves the sport.
