Cricket: First Female President of the MCC!
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw Former England Captain, Clare Connor, will become the first female President of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) in its 233-year history. Currently, the England and Wales Cricket Board Managing Director of Women's Cricket, she will take up her new appointment on 1 October 2021. She will replace former Sri Lanka Captain, Kumar Sangakhana, who will remain in office for a further year in view of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The MCC Currently has 18,000 full members, although it only welcomed its first female full member in 2018, twenty years after a vote to allow women to join. Based at Lords cricket ground, London, which it owns, the MCC acts as custodian and arbiter of the laws of the sport of cricket. Connor stated on her appointment: "I am deeply honoured to be named the next President of the MCC ...... Cricket has enriched my life so deeply, and now it hands me this wonderful privilege." We have discussed and commented on the role of women in sport on this website and in the 'Sports Law and Taxation' Journal and this appointment is indeed a milestone in the quest for more involvement of women in sport and sports administration, especially in such a conservative and traditional sport as cricket. It is indeed to be welcomed! Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at
