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Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup legacy plan unveiled ahead of inaugural competition

Posted: 20 March 2026

With the first matches of the inaugural Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup set to take place in a month’s time, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is delighted to confirm that a new Honours Board will be installed in the Pavilion at Lord’s featuring the names of the winners of the boys’ and girls’ competition each year. This Honours Board, which will be installed adjacent to the windows in the Writing Room, is the first to be added to the walls of the Pavilion since the Limited Overs Honours Board in 2019. The installation will demonstrate MCC’s desire that the Barclays Knight Stokes Cup becomes a permanent part of the English cricket calendar.

To the founders of the competition, Michael Vaughan, former England captain, and Mark Nicholas, Chair of MCC, it is critical that the competition has an enduring legacy beyond the fixtures on the field. In a fundraising event at Lord’s this week hosted by Ric Lewis and Vaughan, founder and trustee of the Black Heart Foundation respectively, donors pledged over £500,000 to finance the long-term sustainability of the competition and to kickstart a legacy programme which will engage directly with participating schools. The programme, whose ambitious parameters are yet to be defined and would be delivered by the MCC Foundation (MCCF) who are organising the entire tournament, aims to create high quality environments – akin to centres of excellence – for talented state-educated cricketers to thrive.

The T20 competition’s first fixtures are scheduled to take place at the end of April. The early rounds will be arranged by local county administrations, depending on the number of teams that have registered, with winning teams from each county reaching the National Rounds in June. There is significant interest from counties to be involved and MCCF can also confirm that The County Ground, Hove, the home of Sussex Cricket, will be the first county ground to host a Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup fixture when it stages the Sussex Finals Day on Wednesday 24 June.

MCCF is also delighted to confirm that Wormsley Cricket Ground (Oxfordshire) will host the South East v. South West boys’ and girls’ semi-finals on Thursday 16 July. The venue for the North v. Central fixture will be confirmed in due course. The winners of the four matches will progress to the Finals Day at Lord’s on Thursday 10 September.

The Black Heart Foundation provided initial financial support for the competition, along with sponsors Barclays, which is also the Principal Partner of both MCC and London Spirit. 

Angus Berry, CEO of MCCF, said: “It is incredibly exciting to be so near to the start of the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup. I am delighted that the thousands of young cricketers who will be taking part in the competition not only have a chance to play at Lord’s, but leave an indelible mark on the Home of Cricket. The support from the counties has been fantastic and now the great opportunity to play at county grounds only adds to the prestige of this new competition.”

Michael Vaughan, who appeared six times on the Honours Board in the Home Dressing Room, said: “I have been repeatedly blown away by the support for the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, first by MCC and the MCC Foundation, then by the sheer number of teams that have signed up, and now by the immense generosity of donors in the Long Room last week. The competition is one thing; creating a long-lasting legacy for the future of state school cricket would be something else entirely. There is clearly real appetite for change in this area and I am excited to see it come together.”

Tom Corbett, Managing Director of Sponsorship and Client Experience at Barclays: “We’re incredibly proud to be launching the Barclays Knight Stokes Cup in April and to play a role in opening up equal access to cricket for a new generation of young people. For the first time, state schools will have a national stage in hardball cricket — giving young players something to aim for, something to belong to, and the chance to see themselves represented at the heart of the game, all the way to the final at Lord’s on 10 September. We’re excited to see the confidence, talent and ambition this tournament will unlock in young players across the country.”