Cricket lawmakers MCC relax bat rules amid worldwide run on willow Sport Business The soaring cost of English willow has forced cricket’s lawmakers the MCC to rewrite their rule book and allow the use of previously-banned laminated bats. Top-of-the-range Grade 1 bats have more than doubled in price to around £1,000 over the last decade, fuelling fears that swathes of would-be cricketers are being priced out. Those concerns [...]
Chanel chief Leena Nair joins Tech Titans investor group at London Spirit Sport Business Chanel chief executive Leena Nair has joined the Tech Titans group of investors who now own 49 per cent of London Spirit. The British-Indian executive was at Lord’s last week for the first game of this year’s Hundred competition between Spirit and Oval Invincibles after reaching out to Nikesh Arora, the chief executive of Palo [...]
London Spirit: Tech titans strike Nike kit deal in Hundred first Sport Business London Spirit’s new part-owners, Silicon Valley-based consortium Cricket Investor Holdings, have agreed a kit deal with Nike for the Hundred franchise which will begin next year. The Nike deal is the first bespoke commercial contract secured by one of the Hundred teams, as sponsorship deals have previously been sold centrally by the England and Wales [...]
Six Nations look to lure Sky by bundling TV rights with Lions June 18, 2025 The Six Nations unions are in talks with the British and Irish Lions about bundling their TV rights for the next four-year cycle. European unions have already sold TV rights for the Six Nations between 2026 and 2029 in a joint deal with ITV and BBC, but have yet to go to market with their [...]
London Spirit £144m sale nearly done, insists MCC chief May 20, 2025 MCC chief executive Rob Lawson insists a £144m deal between a consortium of US tech heavyweights and the owners of Lord’s Cricket Ground for a 49 per cent stake in Hundred franchise London Spirit is just a “couple of weeks away from getting everything done”. It comes after the initial timeline for eight Hundred deals [...]
Afghan Women’s Team first recipients of MCC Global Refugee Cricket Fund January 31, 2025 The Afghan Women’s Team will be the first recipients of the MCC Global Refugee Cricket Fund, it was announced on Friday. Marylebone Cricket Club and the MCC Foundation have launched the fund to help those in cricket who have been displaced due to conflict. The Afghan Women’s Team were forced into exile from their native [...]
Barclays becomes main sponsor of Lord’s and MCC January 27, 2025 Barclays has expanded its sports sponsorship portfolio by becoming principal partner of Lord’s Cricket Ground and its owner, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The multi-year partnership, effective immediately, sees the Home of Cricket’s iconic Media Centre renamed the Barclays Media Centre. It will also mean the bank making “one of the largest ever donations” to the [...]