LORD'S

One of the comments made by Stephanie Lawrence, my PA nearly throughout my time as Secretary & Chief Executive, which I took as a great compliment, was that I was always prepared to consider change.  Two leading people made persuasive statements about change.  The Dalai Lama said: “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.”  President Jimmy Carter said: “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.”  Both comments left a lasting impression on me.  I had started at Lord’s by saying that I was a great supporter of tradition, but that I was keen to strip away some of the folk lore that seemed to have grown alongside it.  Tradition is a strong platform on which to build future thoughts and ideas.  Folk lore grows from custom and practice, sometimes initially unintentionally, and may easily become restrictive.  

 

It was often expressed in the media that MCC was thoroughly opposed to change.  In reality, although there were inevitably some amongst the membership who wished to retain everything as it had been when they joined the Club, the MCC Committee and the vast majority of Members wanted to see progress and greater opportunities to use the Home of Cricket more widely.  In the years from 1994 to 2006 there were numerous changes to the ground at Lord’s and many more activities became available to the MCC Members and to the local community.  I feel proud to have overseen these improvements which benefitted spectators and increased opportunities for members of the Club.

 

Indoor School

The main building changes started in 1994, when the Duke of Edinburgh opened the new Indoor School, designed by the architect, David Morley.  The innovative practice facility used outdoor light without the glare or shadow from the sun.  Most indoor nets were artificially lit at that time.  The lanes provided a proper run-up for bowlers, with shock pads to lessen the chance of injury.  It was possible to play a full game of indoor cricket by pulling all the netting back.  Cameras were installed to allow batsmen and bowlers to analyse their technique.  Modern equipment has been added as technology has moved on and it is now possible for umpires, or indeed anyone interested in trying it out, to use Hawkeye to test themselves and see how accurate their decision-making ability really is.  It is very salutary for bowlers, who suddenly realise that some appeals may be not out and for batsmen, who have to accept that, on occasions, they are rightly given out LBW.  It is a fine centre, now called the MCC Cricket Academy, and it remains a first-class facility for the MCC Young Cricketers and for any teams or individuals who wish to practise there.  It stands next to the Nursery Ground, another vital part of the cricketing facilities at Lord’s.  The Nursery Ground is small, but large enough for many games of cricket to be played, especially by youngsters and Cross Arrows who have a full fixture list against clubs, who are delighted to play at the Home of Cricket.

 

Alongside the Indoor School are the offices for ECB.  At the East Gate, the Lord’s shop has replaced the cottage which originally handled all the merchandise for sale at the ground and also served as the home for the Head Coach.

 

Grand Stand

By 1998, Lord’s had a new Grand Stand, which was a much lighter building with infinitely better views for spectators.  Before Nicholas Grimshaw’s design with the open seating, the hospitality boxes, the three columns and two-storey spine beam, which increased the capacity by a third more seats, spectators sitting in the back rows of seats next to the scoreboard were only able to see half the ground because of the central structure, housing the scorers and one of the two giant scoreboards. 

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The MCC Secretary’s hospitality box was always located on that side of the ground, but lunch and tea were served in a small room at the back of the stand, with no view of the cricket.  The President’s and the Secretary’s boxes were now alongside each other centrally on the North side of the grounds.  Both hospitality double boxes provided greater flexibility and, although not located behind the bowler’s arm, they were as close as anywhere on the ground to the action.  There were two knock-on effects of the new facility; a need for a new scoreboard and scorers’ box and a new home for Father Time, the iconic weathervane, which had overseen the ground from the solid roof of the old Grand Stand.  The scoreboard, which by then needed to be capable of showing replays, notices and advertising, took its place in front of the Clock Tower.  Father Time has taken up residence on the South side of Lord’s above the new scorers’ box.

 

As always with buildings, the deadline was tight and there were huge concerns whether the outfield, where heavy cranes and lorries had driven during the two winters, could be re-turfed in time.  The new turf fortunately settled very well with constant rolling, though it was in place only a week before the first major international match.  Until that game, Mick Hunt and his ground staff had prepared non-major match pitches on the lower side of the square.

 

On the first day of the Test Match in 1998, there were still some notices missing, in particular the signs for the ladies’ and gentlemen’s lavatories.  One of the guests in the Secretary’s box was Ali Bacher, the South African cricket captain and now administrator, who left just before lunch to find the lavatory.  He had just locked the door to a cubicle, when he was horrified to hear women’s voices outside.  He stayed in place for twenty minutes until he could not hear any more conversations and then returned to the box late for lunch, much to the consternation of his wife.  He arrived back at the table just as I was welcoming all the guests and giving a brief introduction of each one.  Chris and I were always keen to make these introductions, so that, after lunch, guests knew who was there and could chat with those they wished to meet.  Whenever we went to Sydney Cricket Ground, Alan Davidson, the great Australian fast bowler and chairman of New South Wales Cricket, welcomed and spoke about all the guests.  We were impressed at how he seemed to remember the names and background histories of over seventy guests without notes and I was relieved that we were limited to twenty-four.

 

Media Centre

At the same time as the Grand Stand was being built, a decision had been taken to build a new Media Centre between the Compton and Edrich Stands, to be completed in 1999, in time for the Cricket World Cup.  The logistics of materials arriving during the winter when the final parts of the Grand Stand were also arriving, were brilliantly managed by the MCC Estates staff and also by close cooperation between the teams of the Grand Stand’s architect, Nicholas Grimshaw, and of the architects of the Media Centre, Future Systems, where Amanda Levete and Jan Kaplicky produced a wonderful facility for us that won them the RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture.

 

This building was not universally popular, particularly amongst some members of the cricket press and, in particular, Test Match Special, whose base had been on the north turret of the Pavilion for many years.  Henry Blofeld once remarked that he loathed the new facility and yet thought that the best place to be at Lord’s was inside it because it was the only place in the ground where one could not see ‘the monstrosity’.  Amazingly, much to the surprise of the President, Sir Oliver Popplewell, and me, permission was granted by all the necessary bodies in almost record time.  There had been a competition amongst architects and three were selected by the working group, passed through the Estates committee, the Cricket committee, to ensure it would not adversely affect the cricket in the middle, the Finance committee, who had originally agreed a budget of £1.7 million, the planners, Westminster City Council and the local St John’s Wood Society.  Once all these bodies had accepted the design, the cost, by now considerably higher, as the first draft from Future Systems was already at £2.3 million, and the pressing timescale, which had to have a deadline of the start of the 1999 season, the project was put to the membership at an SGM and passed with a large majority.  

 

As becomes apparent from the list of consultations above, turning an original decision into reality is not an easy task at Lord’s.  At the same time that the Media Centre was being accepted by all these influential bodies, the new scoreboard had to go back to the planners for appeal, having been turned down after a complaint about light spillage from one of the neighbours.  Once again, there was a very tight deadline for this innovative building to be tested and ready on time and, even more important, was the fact that there would be no shortage of criticism if the area where the world’s cricket writers and radio and television commentators were located revealed any shortcomings.

 

As the first ever all-aluminium, semi-monocoque building in the world, with no builder prepared to bid for its construction, Future Systems had to go to two shipyards in Cornwall and one in the Netherlands, because of the similarities to boat-building technology.  The front glass screen, which is part of the structural support of the facility, has only one opening window.  This was inserted at the insistence of Test Match Special commentators, who wanted the atmosphere of the crowd.  Originally the idea was to pipe the ambient sound of the spectators into the cricket writers’ parts of the Media Centre, but the microphones were very close to the Compton and Edrich Stands and the speakers were soon switched off.  The Media Centre is, in the eyes of most visitors to Lord’s, a great triumph.  It stands directly opposite the Pavilion, built in the nineteenth century, and contrasts the old with the new architecture of the ground.  It is self-supporting on two columns, which house the lifts and stairs.  It has allowed the new Compton and Edrich Stands to be put in place without demolishing the building.  It stands fifteen metres above the ground and is roughly the same height as the Pavilion at the other end.

 

The cost of the building rose astronomically, partly because the boat-builders were able to ask a high price, as there was no competition to build it, and partly because to fund the original target expenditure, a sponsor was sought.  The NatWest bank was the first sponsor to lend its name to the Media Centre, but wanted two hospitality boxes, one at each end of the building, to entertain guests.  This entailed extending the length of the building and, inevitably, increasing the cost.  Nevertheless, the final cost of over £5 million, although considerably more than was originally budgeted, has produced another iconic building at Lord’s, a landmark for British Airways pilots as they come into Heathrow Airport from an easterly direction.  It has received acclaim worldwide and is a very useful additional facility for dinners and receptions in the restaurant overlooking the Nursery Ground, as well as proving that modern and more traditional architecture can be mixed to produce an interesting and distinctive backdrop to the cricket.  It helps to maintain the feel of Lord’s as a cricket ground, with separate buildings, as opposed to a stadium, which has always been the intention of generations of Committees and Members.

 

These three buildings were the major development projects within the ground during my years.  However, countless areas of Lord’s underwent change before I retired in 2006.  Indeed, the development of the ground has continued and even increased in pace since then.  Spectators and visitors to the ground rightly expect top class facilities and MCC Members expect their Club to be kept up-to-date with their own facilities.  As new buildings have been erected, MCC departments have moved around the ground.  It would be ideal if the people working for the Club or ECB or Middlesex CCC at Lord’s could all be housed in a purpose-built block of offices, but that is perhaps for the future.  In the meantime, the Printing office, the Finance office, the Control Room, housing the police and heads of safety and security, the Tours department and the Ticket Office were all relocated.  Extensions were built to the Museum and Library, which included the new Film Theatre, named after the much loved Brian Johnston.  A third electronic scoreboard/replay screen was installed at the back of the Edrich Stand and a new scorers’ box and smaller scoreboard between the Tavern and the Mound Stands.  Every year there was a comprehensive programme of redecoration and renovation.  The Tavern Pub and the Banqueting Suite, now the Thomas Lord Suite, once inside the ground, but now available to the general public from St John’s Wood Road without having to enter Lord’s, were fully refurbished.  The Nursery Pavilion was erected next to the Nursery Ground, running along the Wellington Road, as a temporary structure, expected to stand for ten years, but still in place in 2019.  Directional signage round the ground was much improved.  More attractive landscaping was carried out and railings replaced external walls in some areas, so that the ground became more visible to passers-by. 

 

Pavilion

The Members of MCC contribute a large sum each year in subscriptions, which provide them with free access to cricket matches.  Their own facilities were also kept up to date and the activities available increased.  The real tennis court and the squash courts are constantly in need of an upgrade.  The pavilion was totally renovated in 2004 at a cost of £8.2 million.  This listed building originally cost £21,000 in 1890.  It has seen many changes to the game and has hosted many very important people.  The renovations and redecoration were extensive.  A lift was installed and a terrace at the top with more seating was introduced along with bars on the South and North turrets.  All the exterior of the building was repointed and repaired.  Inside, the whole place was refreshed and turned into a building fit for the 21st century.  It was a massive task, led by David Batts, the Deputy Chief Executive, whose background in hotel management made him the ideal person to take charge. 

 

Apart from a cricket pavilion with the dressing rooms, containing the famous honours boards, officials’ rooms and seats for viewing the cricket, the most famous room, the Long Room, is a multi-purpose area, which is popular with Members and former players, who watch through the see-through sightscreens, introduced by Tony Dodemaide, our Australian Head of Cricket.  It is an art gallery for some of the Club’s paintings, a dining hall, reception venue and concert hall.  The pavilion also provides offices for the senior executives of MCC.  It is well used and a very good source of much-needed income, particularly during the winter months.

 

More activities for Members have been organised and there are supporters of the golf days and tours, the bridge, chess and backgammon evenings.  There were several highly successful Long Room concerts held in conjunction with the Lord’s Taverners’ music committee, sponsored by Classic FM.  The first of the Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lectures was given in 2000 by Richie Benaud and there has been a long list of experienced and distinguished speakers, mainly cricketers of note, but one or two others who have not played at the top level, but love the game.  They have all contributed their thoughts about the game of cricket and their love of it.  Those able to attend or listen as the lecture is streamed live have enjoyed what has been said.  Afterwards, Mark Nicholas has expertly chaired a panel of three and has brought out the best in some top cricketers with his lively questions.  Now held in the Nursery Pavilion to accommodate more members, it is followed by a dinner in the Long Room, attended by members of the Cowdrey family.  The Film Society, the museum exhibitions and the winter dinners and suppers are well attended.  Cricket tours overseas have remained popular for the active cricketers within the Club and have visited many cricketing countries amongst the ICC Associate and Affiliate members.  All these additional cricket opportunities have been added to the ongoing outmatch programme which reached over 450 matches against schools and clubs.  MCC has remained primarily a cricket club, much to the relief of the vast majority of Members, but other activities have been introduced and will continue to be enjoyed.

 

Lord’s is one of the best-known cricket grounds in the world and can justifiably continue to be called the Home of Cricket.  In the period of my tenancy as Secretary & Chief Executive there were many changes and improvements to the playing area, all overseen by the cricket department.  

 

Hover-cover

The innovative hover-cover, which is over thirty yards long and has side covers attached to be unrolled across the square, has allowed the pitch to be protected from the rain very quickly and has avoided the wheel marks that were often to be seen when the ground was soft.  Sponsored by Amlin Insurance in conjunction with their chosen charity, MacMillan Cancer UK, there was nearly a row when Benson & Hedges and ECB requested that the Macmillan wording should be covered during the Benson & Hedges matches.  We were very reluctant to agree and MacMillan refused absolutely to lose their sponsorship rights, so the wording remained.

 

Outfield

The complete relaying of the outfield to stop the pooling at the lower side of the ground in front of the Tavern stand after heavy rain was an immediate success.  For years, to the frustration of spectators, the rainwater took an inordinate time to drain away and the crowd grew restive in the sunshine, as much of the top half of the ground was drying quickly and the players were practising above the square.  The logistics for relaying all the turf during the winter were fraught with concern.  It was unthinkable that the ground should not be available for the season, but there was a huge amount of earth and rubble that had to be removed before the new base and drainage could be laid.  That necessitated a lot of digging and lorry-loads of the old, thick, clay-based soil leaving Lord’s with the possibility of wet weather intervening, making it impossible for work to continue.  Fortunately September and October were fine and so the first part of the work went very well as we cleared down to the solid London clay.  The next concern was frost or cold weather while the foundations for lighter soil were installed, but again we were fortunate.  At the beginning of the year anyone standing in the pavilion saw a green square surrounded by brown soil on top of the pebbles, shingle, sand and irrigation system, which were laid ready for the new surface to appear.  The final worry was whether the grass would grow sufficiently in the spring.  The contractors had arranged for the whole surface to be grown in East Anglia, ready to be rolled up and transported in lorry loads to St John’s Wood.  In case of any unforeseen difficulties, exactly the same amount of turf was also being grown elsewhere.  One way or another the grass would be laid and the pieces of turf allowed to unite so that fielders would be safe from turned ankles in the early matches.

 

It worked.  We were indebted to Dr John Lill, the former Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, who had experience of similar re-turfing on the MCG after the AFL season and he was a reassuring presence at crucial times. Tony Dodemaide took responsibility for this whole enterprise.

 

Pavilion Sight-screen

Tony also took charge of the see-through sight-screen in front of the pavilion.  Members in the Long Room had, for years, been faced with a solid screen, which blocked their view.  The solution, which still provided and increased the background that the batsmen needed to sight the ball, was a screen that was transparent from inside the building.  Lights in the Long Room were visible through the screen, but with these switched off, everyone was content.  That is until the white ball matches needed a black sightscreen!  We never found a solution to that problem.

 

Tony Dodemaide’s time at Lord’s, before he returned to Australia to become the chief executive for Western Australia Cricket Association and subsequently for Cricket Victoria, oversaw these very important changes at Lord’s, allowing more cricket to be played and enhancing the Members’ view from the pavilion.

 

IT and Technology

Throughout all these changes, nothing improved more than the IT provision, as capability grew.  Technology and its uses have always fascinated me.  In 1994, MCC possessed two word processors and only one computer in the Assistant Secretary of Finance’s office.  Minutes, notes and instructions were routinely sent round the ground on paper in orange envelopes.  The envelopes were used several times and the intended recipient’s hand-written name was always the last on the list.  It was clear that we needed to modernise and enter the world of the internet and emails.  There was a certain amount of trepidation and resistance amongst the staff, so our IT consultant, Stephen Wilder, suggested that I should take the lead and use a desktop computer.  I opted for a laptop, so that I could practise at home.  Slowly, communication round the ground and outside changed and the staff embraced the new methods.

 

Technology has been introduced into cricket on the field, but that is something that I shall return to elsewhere.

 

A More Commercial Approach

As MCC became more commercial in its approach, a Marketing committee was set up and, with the appointment of a Communications Officer, Members received regular newsletters and surveys asking for their views.  Computerisation of many areas helped and those on our enormous ticket database were contacted more regularly through emails.  Merchandise in the newly-built shop, replacing the old cottage at the East Gate, was increased and more sponsorship was sought.  Following NatWest and Amlin, British Airways provided sponsorship for tour parties and coaching trips overseas and Buxton Water helped us start the MCC Spirit of Cricket Challenge, which was, perhaps, a precursor to the activities of the Chance to Shine charity.  Our initiative consisted of visits to school assemblies, cricket lessons during PE periods and cricket camps during the summer holidays and was well received by the pupils and the school teachers.  

 

ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP

An important sponsorship was the Waterford Crystal replica of the Ashes Urn.  For years and particularly after several Australian victories in the Ashes, there had been requests for the Urn to be retained in the country of the winning team in any Ashes series.  On one occasion even John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, wrote a letter to me suggesting that, in the Spirit of Cricket, it was time for MCC to let the Ashes out of its museum.  My reply was straightforward and explained that the Urn was not, and had never been, the trophy for the Ashes series.  It emanated from a joke when a bail was burnt after a country house match down under, placed in the Urn and given by a group of Melbourne women, amongst them Florence Morphy, to Ivo Bligh, the England captain, who later became Lord Darnley.  He subsequently married her and, on his death, his widow presented the Urn to MCC as a gift.  The Ashes Urn has resided in the MCC museum since then and is owned by the Club.  This story is not as well-known as the origination of the term.  This occurred in a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times immediately after Australia's first Test win on English soil in 1882. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882-83 series played in Australia before which the English captain, Ivo Bligh, had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour ‘the quest to regain the Ashes’.  The presentation of the Ashes Urn to Ivo Bligh after the light-hearted match was in response to this comment, but never a trophy for winning the Test Series.

 

After John Howard’s letter, MCC spoke with Waterford Crystal and a suitable trophy was struck, an exact replica of the Urn but about two feet tall, which would be presented to the winning captain after the Sydney Test.  England agreed to this and Australia rather less enthusiastically accepted it too.  Tony Lewis, the MCC President, made the first presentation of this trophy to the Australian captain on the outfield after the last match of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2000.  In addition it was agreed that the actual Urn, which is extremely frail, could be flown to Australia for a series of exhibitions at museums and cricket grounds, which it did in 2007.  Virgin Atlantic sponsored the trip and the Urn, safely packed in a box and strapped to the wrist of the assistant curator of the MCC museum for security and insurance purposes, set off for only the second time that it had ever left Lord’s.  Despite the existence of the larger trophy, there is still a desire by the winning captains to display a life-sized replica of the actual Urn for photographs, so the myth continues.

 

Advertising hoardings, sponsors’ logos or names on hospitality boxes, the hire of boxes, debenture seats and many dinners and receptions in the Long Room and other buildings round the ground have increased the revenue of the Club substantially and, in turn, allowed the building development work to be completed without recourse to public money.  Cricket may be the primary focus for MCC and its Members, but income generation to sustain the development programmes and the many activities that take place and need funding is vital.  However, the Members will soon remind the Secretary & Chief Executive, the staff and the Committee if the balance between club and business alters unacceptably.