Incoming MCC president Mark Nicholas has said that that the club ‘strongly believes’ fifty-over cricket should only be played in World Cups in a bid to preserve the ODI format.

Nicholas was announced as the latest president of the prestigious organisation today (October 2), replacing outgoing president Stephen Fry. The former Hampshire captain was first elected as a Member of MCC in 1981 and first served on Cricket committee whilst he was still a player in 1994.

In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Nicholas called for a significant reduction in the number of bilateral ODIs being played. “We believe strongly that ODIs should be World Cups only,” Nicholas said. “We think it’s difficult bilaterally now to justify them. They’re not filling grounds in a lot of countries. And there is a power at the moment to T20 cricket that is almost supernatural.

“It’s more than just ticket sales. It’s the amount of people that want to own franchises, the amount of countries that want to run tournaments, it’s the amount of players that want to be in a market all around the world.

“In a free market, the most money wins. And that’s just the end-game. The players can see that bubbling away and they want to be a part of it. So, it is an extraordinary power that T20 has, and I think scheduling 50-over cricket alongside it just continues the story of the death knell of the ODI game.”

Nicholas’s comments come days before the start of the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Many of the ten participating teams have had limited fifty-over practice in the 12 months leading up to the competition. The ICC’s calendar for the next four year-cycle will see two T20 World Cups take place before the next fifty-over competition in 2027.

In reference to the relevance of the MCC in the shadow of the ICC’s power over the game, Nicholas said: “The problem at the moment is that the ICC see us a bit of a threat. When we put our head above the parapet, they’re like ‘whoa, settle down, we run the game’. So we need to integrate better with ICC, we need to understand each other better. We need to develop thinking that comes together.”

Nicholas also touched on the position of the MCC in the wake of the ICEC report. The report specifically singled out the MCC for its overwhelmingly male membership and its resistance to moving the annual Eton vs Harrow fixture from Lord’s to tackle elitism.

“I’ve always felt that MCC could do a better job with the development game and could make more of a point of supporting kids who aren’t as lucky as lots of us who have been to a private school,” said Nicholas. “There is an element of the club that might be elitist but a lot of members involved in the grassroots of the game just get on with their business. I feel that that we’re quite a long way down the road in many of the areas that the ICEC report hammered us for.

“You’ve got to remember that tradition has mattered, but it’s not so relevant now. The founding fathers of this club came from those schools and wanted to play their matches here. It was a cool thing to do. It’s a different world now. So don’t blame the past.

“My guess is that the game will move away from here, probably that the two headmasters won’t want the publicity around it, because attitudes are changing. The world is changing so fast at the moment that it might not suit them to have this issue rear its head all the time. I hope the club can embrace the idea that, in time, common sense will bring change, and crack on in the meantime with really useful things.”

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