That's are name, say Lord's bosses

CLAIMS that Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is planning to change the name of Lord s cricket ground were denied this week. It was reported that the MCC was thinking of selling the naming rights of the home of cricket to help pay for a �400million redevelopm

CLAIMS that Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is planning to change the name of Lord's cricket ground were denied this week.

It was reported that the MCC was thinking of selling the naming rights of the home of cricket to help pay for a �400million redevelopment of the grounds.

But a spokesman for the MCC said the St John's Wood ground will stay as it always has been.

"Lord's was named after Thomas Lord, and the club has no intention of the ground being named after anyone else," he said.

"The committee has not discussed the possibility that particular areas within Lord's might be re-named. The media centre, since its construction in 1999, has borne the name of a commercial sponsor, and this has not met with any opposition. MCC will continue to sell naming rights for the media centre."

The MCC is currently in the process of submitting a planning application for the demolition of Victorian housing behind the pavilion to create an underground cricket academy, a significantly larger museum and a brasserie in the grounds.

The spokesman said the application is subject to assessing the financial viability of the proposal, as well as gaining agreement from the Rifkind Levy Partnership, which owns a strip of land at the nursery end of Lord's.

The number of Test Matches and One Day Internationals each year also has to be agreed, before the plans went to public consultation.