MCC Universities - investing in a cricketing education

At the start of the 2005 cricket season, MCC announced that it would be supporting the University Centres of Cricketing Excellence (UCCEs) to the tune of almost £1.2million over the next three years.

Each of the six participating centres - at Cambridge, Cardiff/Glamorgan, Durham, Leeds/Bradford, Loughborough and Oxford - receives £65,000 per annum to plough into facilities, coaching and the latest innovations in video analysis, sports science and medical support. They will be collectively known as MCC Universities for the duration of the agreement.

The initiative is aimed at male cricketers with the potential to play, or who are already playing, first-class cricket, and female cricketers of senior, county, regional or England standard. It intends to provide the best of both worlds to talented cricketers who wish to continue with an academic career - an excellent cricketing education giving the chance to fulfil ambitions, while career opportunities outside of the game remain unaffected.

The UCCE scheme was first introduced by the England & Wales Cricket Board in October 2000. The British Universities Sports Association and the Professional Cricketers’ Association were consulted at the outset, and both organisations are fully supportive of the initiative. MCC has now become the sole source of external funding, although the ECB continues to have input in the scheduling of fixtures and umpire allocation - as well as appointing a Performance Manager to the MCC Advisory Panel which monitors the programme.

MCC’s Chairman of Cricket, Tony Lewis, is hopeful that the scheme will continue to develop players with the potential to represent their national team. “The MCC Universities give young players the ability to further their cricket careers without compromising their education; in fact, they will be able to do both to a very high standard”, he said. “For example, the Durham scheme has already produced players of the calibre of Andrew Strauss, James Foster and Caroline Atkins, all of whom achieved good degrees and have gone on to play cricket for England. We hope that, with the increased funding from MCC, more talented young players will emerge from university cricket and make the transition to the professional game.”

Cricketers at MCC Universities are being encouraged to become Playing Members of MCC and represent the Club in out-matches and on overseas tours. For example, Mark Phythian, a member of the Durham UCCE, travelled to Namibia and Uganda with an MCC tour in February 2005. Mark Pettini, from the Cardiff/Glamorgan Centre, played for MCC against the Champion County at Lord’s in the opening match of the 2005 season. Nicky Shaw, who represented England Women in their 2005 World Cup campaign and is currently studying at Loughborough, was an MCC Young Cricketer in 2003-04, and Caroline Atkins, formerly of Durham UCCE, joined the Young Cricketers for the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

An MCC-produced prospectus, which lists the academic institutions involved in the MCC Universities, together with information on how to apply, may be downloaded by clicking on the link in the right-hand column of this page. Alternatively, a hard copy may be requested from the MCC Cricket Office by e-mailing cricket.office@mcc.org.uk or phoning 020 7616 8605.