Association of Cricket Officials Issue 29 | Page 14

By the Byes
New MCC President Drop-in Pitches
The MCC has announced its next
President to be the former
Chairman of the ECB, Lord
MacLaurin. Joining Tesco as a
trainee in 1959, his business
career – spanning four decades –
saw him become Managing
Director, and later Chairman, of
the supermarket giant. A minor
counties cricketer for
Hertfordshire when he was in his
20s, upon retirement, MacLaurin
became Chairman of the ECB
and oversaw the introduction of
central contracts and the
appointment of England’s first
overseas coach, Duncan Fletcher.
MacLaurin has been a member of
the MCC for over 50 years and
will take over from the
incumbent President, Matthew
Fleming, in October. The London Stadium, which hosted the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and
currently serves as the home ground to football club West Ham United, is
currently being considered as a possible cricket venue. The 60,000-seater
stadium is over double the size of England’s largest ground, Lord’s. In order for
England to play on the land made sacred by the likes of Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and
Jessica Ennis-Hill, the ECB is experimenting with drop-in pitches, a standard
practice for multi-purpose venues in Australia and New Zealand. First used back
in the 1970s for Kerry Packer’s World Series, each wicket is transported and
maintained as a single slab, measuring approximately 24 metres in length, 20
centimetres deep and weighing nearly 30 tonnes (the MCG in Melbourne has 10 of
these!). These slabs are prepared off-site and can be transported in and out very
quickly – five out o