MCC in Canada
The Conscience of Cricket
Since 1788 the MCC and Lords have been the home, heart, soul and conscience of cricket. I can’t remember quite when they were replaced but it may have been at about the time the Lords of Cricket stood four square against Kerry Packer and limited overs cricket.
The new monsters of the midway called the ICC moved into Lords to share digs with the England Cricket Bound, the MCC and Middlesex. The marriage was short lived and the ICC currently resides in Dubai not only to reflect the shift of the axis of power in cricket to Asia and Africa but also to take advantage of the laws that allow them to hoard the money they mine from cricket.
It took about 200 years to undermine the power of the MCC over cricket. It has taken barely 25 to 30 years for the ICC to hand it back. The why is not too hard to discern.
The last world cup was a local community relations disaster. The previous world cup in S. Africa will be remembered for the lip service paid by the English to the rule of law and New Zealand to their contractual agreements.
It is not to say that the world has not changed but the moral compass has not. Cricket is a game. Its beauty is in its simplicity. Three pegs, bails, a ball and a bat and the game is on. When concluded the green space is returned to park. No goal posts to mar the view.
As for the MCC Committee recommendations I would go further than the MCC and not only ban glue to cement wickets but artificial wickets of any kind.
As for the MCC reasserting its position as the conscience of cricket as a first step they should consider reasserting their independence from the oligopolies that control cricket by having a communications presence on the internet separate from cricinfo.
June 11, 2007 Cricinfo announced that they had been sold to Disney, one of the biggest corporate oligopolies on the block, trading on the NYSE at $34.15, volume on the day 6.9 million shares traded. Now there is a pleasant thought, the M.C.C. media and communications, being controlled by a Disney subsidiary. So much for the conscience of cricket reasserting itself through the M.C.C.
Since 1788 the MCC and Lords have been the home, heart, soul and conscience of cricket. I can’t remember quite when they were replaced but it may have been at about the time the Lords of Cricket stood four square against Kerry Packer and limited overs cricket.
The new monsters of the midway called the ICC moved into Lords to share digs with the England Cricket Bound, the MCC and Middlesex. The marriage was short lived and the ICC currently resides in Dubai not only to reflect the shift of the axis of power in cricket to Asia and Africa but also to take advantage of the laws that allow them to hoard the money they mine from cricket.
It took about 200 years to undermine the power of the MCC over cricket. It has taken barely 25 to 30 years for the ICC to hand it back. The why is not too hard to discern.
The last world cup was a local community relations disaster. The previous world cup in S. Africa will be remembered for the lip service paid by the English to the rule of law and New Zealand to their contractual agreements.
It is not to say that the world has not changed but the moral compass has not. Cricket is a game. Its beauty is in its simplicity. Three pegs, bails, a ball and a bat and the game is on. When concluded the green space is returned to park. No goal posts to mar the view.
As for the MCC Committee recommendations I would go further than the MCC and not only ban glue to cement wickets but artificial wickets of any kind.
As for the MCC reasserting its position as the conscience of cricket as a first step they should consider reasserting their independence from the oligopolies that control cricket by having a communications presence on the internet separate from cricinfo.
June 11, 2007 Cricinfo announced that they had been sold to Disney, one of the biggest corporate oligopolies on the block, trading on the NYSE at $34.15, volume on the day 6.9 million shares traded. Now there is a pleasant thought, the M.C.C. media and communications, being controlled by a Disney subsidiary. So much for the conscience of cricket reasserting itself through the M.C.C.
Insallah.
“CVT"
Introduction
Presented to The British Columbia Cricket Association
by the President and Committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club
August 1948
The Marleborne Cricket Club would have you believe that they are a family of cricketers who trace their collective genealogy back to before the days the game was played on grass by gentlemen, hence the name "Lords" for their ancestral home. Far from it. For those who bemoan the current plight of cricket with its betting, professionalism, marketing and match fixing, you will be comforted to know that the genus of the MCC and Lords was in gambling and the desire of the English nobility to do their scandalous business out of the eyes of the prying public. Go to the MCC website and click on to History and there it is for the likes of cricketing boards of inquiry, police forces, The News Of The World, Messer's Malik, Cronje, may he rest in peace, and the whole world to see.
"Like shooting and fox hunting, cricket was considered a manly sport for the elite, with plenty of gambling opportunities to boot. Around 20,000 pounds sterling was bet on a series of games between old Etonians and England back in 1751.The MCC is older than an anachronism and some would say color blind as evidenced by their choice of family colors, scrambled eggs and ketchup; I suspect gender blind as well, why they refused to recognize the existence of woman to apply for membership of the Club until recently.
"As the population of London grew, so did the nobility's impatience with the crowds that gathered to watch them play. In pursuit of exclusivity, they therefor approached Thomas Lord,à.and asked him to set up a private ground with their backing."
My first recollection of the MCC is sitting by my grandfather's side and listening to the BBC World Service. For 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there, I was transported to Lords or some other cricket venue to listen to the MCC versus Australia or the West Indies. Australia was always Australia, The West Indies the West Indies, but England was always the MCC. Those recollections have stayed with me to the present. When we went to build our radio link for the Cricket Club webpage there was only one choice, the BBC World Service. I don't know why, but I have comfort in those acronyms, the BBC and the MCC.
Today I went searching for the MCC on the internet. I tried lords.org and lords.com without a success. I tried mcc.org and mcc.com upper and lower without success, only to be disappointed to find that I was searching for at ecb.co.uk, which is "powered" by the Microsoft of cricket, cricinfo. I genuinely hope the name Marleyborne Cricket Club does not disappear from the cricket radar screen to become associated with a brand of sport apparel marketed over the net but I fear it and your sponsors may drive you to it.
Enough said. Welcome to cricketclub.org, the roving ambassadors of English cricket, the M.C.C. We hope to see more of you electronically and in person. We hope that you will become a regular contributor to your directory on our page. We have combed our archives for print meborabilia and offer you this electronic collage in appreciation of the steps you have taken to foster the growth and development of cricket in Canada. Thank you.
Yours in cricket
cricketclub.org
June 15, 02
MCC 1937
Standing from left to right
CH Taylor (Leicestershire) AG Powell (Essex) JT Neve (Band of Brothers) JC Masterman (Oxford Authentics) NM Ford (Middlesex) DWA Forbes (Eton Ramblers) JM Brocklebank (Cambridge) JF Mendl (Oxford Authentics) Captain TH Carlton Levick CBE Honorary Manager
AP Singleton (Oxford & Worcestershire) HJ Enthoven (Middlesex) GC Newman (Middlesex) Captain KA Sellar (Sussex) NG Wykes (Essex)
1951
August 25th 1951
Brockton Point
Vancouver BC
The year 1951 marks our sixty third year of cricket in British Columbia, and is fittingly climaxed by this week's contest with the Marylborne Cricket Club (163rd year), more familiarly know as the "M.C.C." with headquarters at Lords.
Cricket has woven itself firmly into our social fabric. It affectionately links us, as closely as any single factor, with the Motherland and with the may far flung self-governing members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
To attain eminence in the game, a player must develop great patience, powers of concentration, physical endurance, self-control and discipline, and the people who succeed in representing their Province or their Country are usually the finest type of men. When they are visiting other Provinces or other Countries they are goodwill ambassadors in the true sense of the work and can do much to help bring about a friendly understanding.
To you who support and help to develop cricket in British Columbia we offer our sincere appreciation. We hope you will thoroughly enjoy the games.
Fraternally yours
FRANCIS M. HANN
President BCCA
On behalf of the City Council and the citizens of Vancouver I wish to welcome the members of the Marylborne Cricket Club who will not only play two one day games against our local representative side, but will also meet an All-Canada team in a two day test match, the first test match ever to be play in this Country.
I feel indebted for the opportunity of seeing this famous old cricket club and hope that its visit will be the forerunner of may more appearances by teams from the Old Land. I am sure that all local enthusiast bear with me in my sentiments.
Nowhere in Canada will our visitors be more welcome than in Vancouver where so many cricket supporters follow the fortunes of cricket club clubs in other countries where this grand old game is played.
F Hume
Mayor
Showing entrances and other features
100th Anniversary of Brockton Clubhouse
British Columbia Cricket Association presents
on tour at
Brockton Point
September 20th, 22nd, 24th and 25th 1994.
Officers Of The British Columbia Cricket Assosiation
Patron: The Hon. David C. Lam, C.M., K. St. J., L.L.D. Lieutenant- Governor of BC Hon. President: J.M.P. Molyneux Hon. Vice President: C.D. Yeomans, H. Warren, A. Hesford, R. Mercer, K. Gopaulsingh, B. Cox & R. Waters
President: Ben Seebaran
1st Vice President: Dr. Alistair Gregg
2nd Vice President: Phillip Benjamin
Hon. Secretary: Tony Bateman
Treasurer: J. Tamaki
Members at Large: Eric Drayton, Niall OÆSullivan
BCMCL Representative: Cliff Cox, Red Hesp
VDCA Representative: Guy Drake
President's Message
British Columbia Cricket Association takes pleasure in welcoming the sixth MCC team to play in British Columbia.
The origins of MCC visits to Canada can be traced back to 1936, when the Honourable R.C. Matthews sponsored a Canadian team to England and made the first official contact with the M.C.C.
The excellent record of the 1936 Canadian team resulted in the M.C.C.Æs first visit in 1937. That team was captained by B.C. Newman and it was followed by R.W.V. Robins side in 1951. The other M.C.C. touring teams were captained by Dennis Silk in 1959 and 1967 and in 1985 we hosted the last M.C.C. side under the captaincy of Pat Pocock.
We hope that our visitors will enjoy the weather, the cricket and camaraderie during their brief tour to Vancouver and Victoria.
Ben Seebaran
2000
Tour to Canada
British Columbia Cricket Association presents
at Brockton Point
on September 30th and October 1st 2000
and at Beacon Hill
on October 3rd 2000
President's Message
British Columbia Cricket Association takes pleasure in welcoming the sixth MCC team to play in British Columbia.
The origins of MCC visits to Canada can be traced back to 1936, when the Honourable R.C. Matthews sponsored a Canadian team to England and made the first official contact with the M.C.C.
The excellent record of the 1936 Canadian team resulted in the M.C.C.Æs first visit in 1937. That team was captained by B.C. Newman and it was followed by R.W.V. Robins side in 1951. The other M.C.C. touring teams were captained by Dennis Silk in 1959 and 1967 and in 1985 we hosted the last M.C.C. side under the captaincy of Pat Pocock.
We hope that our visitors will enjoy the weather, the cricket and camaraderie during their brief tour to Vancouver and Victoria.
Ben Seebaran
M.C.C. Tour To Canada Schedule Of Games
Sept 20 vs Eastern Canada XI (Ottawa)
Sept 22 vs Canada U25 (Toronto)
Sept 23, 24 vs Canada (Toronto)
Sept 26 vs Canada (Toronto)
Sept 28 vs Prairies XI (Calgary)
Sept 30 vs BCCA PresidentÆs XI (Brockton Point Vancouver)
Oct 01 vs BCCA Selects (Brockton Point Vancouver)
Oct vs VDCA XI (Beacon Hill Victoria)