Mcc Angry Over 2012 Stadium Plans

The MCC, which owns the Lord’s cricket ground, has reacted strongly to reports that the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium could be used to host floodlit cricket after the 2012 Games.

The London Development Agency has asked the England and Wales Cricket Board to consider using the ground post-2012.

However MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw said: ‘In the face of a potentially massive rival, we would strive to continue to play to our strengths. Lord’s has a unique selling point. If competition is forthcoming, so be it.’

Bradshaw is writing to the LDA to ascertain ‘exactly what engagement has taken place’ with the ECB, noting that a spokesman from the national governing body had denied knowledge of any approach.

The Olympic Stadium will have 80,000 seats when the games comes to London, and though that number will probably be reduced after the Games, Lord’s could lose its position as the biggest cricket ground in the country.

Lord’s has a current capacity of 30,000, and that is unlikely to go beyond around 40,000 at the most in the foreseeable future.

Bradshaw said: ‘The MCC is determined to retain its intimate, traditional character. We are a ground and not a stadium, and no one here wants that to change.

‘Spectators come to Lord’s for everything from the picnics in the Coronation Garden to the thrill of watching players on the hallowed turf follow in the footsteps of Grace, Bradman and Compton.’

Meanwhile, the LDA says it has also contacted two counties about taking on the stadium after 2012, although the four most obvious candidates – Surrey, Middlesex, Essex and Kent – deny they have been approached.