A decision by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to allow people to jump the waiting list has led to an attempt to oust the club’s chairman. Members angry with the way the club is being run are pressing for a vote of confidence in Gerald Corbett, who has been chairman since 2015.
The dissenting MCC members are confident they will get enough support to force a special meeting and even say they will win when it comes to a vote. The committee has proposed selling 350 life memberships for several thousand pounds each, with the option of rising to £85,000 or more, to raise funds for the development of Lord’s.
There are 12,000 people on the waiting list and the only way to jump the queue is to become a playing member or be awarded an honorary life membership, reserved for distinguished former players, royalty and those who had made a contribution to the sport.
Opponents of the proposal believe it would be unfair to people on the waiting list to see others get in ahead of them simply because they have money. The club has dismissed the opposition as an attempt by a tiny minority to thwart modernisation plans at a time when it is trying to plan for the return of cricket after the pandemic.
However, Chris Waterman, one of the dissenters, said that an opposition group had more than 200 members. They need 180 signatures in order to force a special general meeting. He said Corbett’s performance as chairman had been “hopeless”, adding: “MCC has no support among the ordinary members, because it is run by a geriatric chumocracy.”
Corbett said: “But we did it before - in 1996 - and I don’t recall any sense of moral iniquity . . . I think that is better than saddling the club with debt.”
