MCC Spirit of Cricket: £400,000 investment

Date released: 6 June 2003

MCC is to invest nearly £400,000 in the promotion of the Spirit of Cricket in 2003.

The Club's campaign will have four main elements. First, it will invest £120,000 in a new grassroots cricket programme, the MCC Spirit of Cricket Challenge, designed to encourage fair play from the moment that children first become involved in the game. The Challenge will introduce youngsters to cricket in six areas around the country, and offer them the opportunity to carry on playing the game by building links with local clubs. The new scheme will also help teachers to cover cricket in the curriculum, by offering them training in the use of the ECB's "Howzat" coaching manual.

Secondly, MCC will spend up to £165,000 supporting school and university cricket, in association with the ECB. The Under-13 and UCCE competitions will now be formally known as the MCC Spirit of Cricket U-13 Club Championship and the MCC Spirit of Cricket UCCE Championship. These two competitions will help MCC and the ECB work together more closely for the good of the game in England and Wales. In particular, MCC funding will enable the six University Centres of Cricketing Excellence to enhance their cricket programmes.

For the MCC Spirit of Cricket campaign, the key event of the year will again be the Cowdrey Lecture, to be delivered at Lord's, on Tuesday 29th July, by Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar will be the latest eminent cricketer to deliver the annual Lecture in memory of Lord Cowdrey, who was a driving force, with Ted Dexter, in ensuring that the Spirit of Cricket became the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket. (Sunil comes in at number three, behind Richie Benaud, who delivered the inaugural lecture in July 2001, and Barry Richards, who spoke in 2002.)

Three hundred guests will be invited to Lord's to hear this Lecture by Sunil Gavaskar, whose cricketing achievements at Lord's were marked at the start of the 2002 season, when a Tavern Stand box was named after him.

Finally, cricket-followers around the country will be given the opportunity to participate in Question and Answer Evenings, on the theme of the Spirit of Cricket, close to three other Test match grounds.

The first such event took place on Thursday 5th June in Durham, after the first day of Test cricket at Chester-le-Street. Mark Nicholas chaired a panel of guests including Henry Olonga and Geoff Cook, in front of an audience of 200 local cricketers and cricket coaches. (Similar events will be held at, or close to, Edgbaston and The Oval later in the year.)

Announcing these new initiatives, MCC's Secretary & Chief Executive, Roger Knight (right, top), said: "I am delighted that MCC is able to make this massive investment in the promotion of the Spirit of Cricket. Our initiative has already received enthusiastic support from, among others, the International Cricket Council, the Cricket Club of India, and the Australian Cricket Board. The international players shown on the MCC Spirit of Cricket cards [including Nasser Hussain and Sachin Tendulkar] have all endorsed the concept. The more widely we are able to promote the Spirit of Cricket, the more likely it is that we will see it in action on the field of play, resulting in matches that are more enjoyable both to participate in and to watch."