Lord’s pitch needs revival to save it from hitting a new low

Lord’s. The Home of Cricket. But for whom?

It’s not Middlesex. The county who have long played their ‘home’ matches at England’s most iconic cricket ground, but are also tenants, as opposed to landlords. It’s not England, whose Test summer is centred around the venue but are a nomadic home team. And with fixtures such as Eton v Harrow still played at the ground and tickets for day three of the New Zealand Test ranging from £70 (restricted view) to £135, you may not consider it for me nor you either.

Nope, it’s the Marylebone Cricket Club who can call Lord’s home. An institution caught between trying to innovate and please the masses, while maintaining prestige and tradition.

Across three days of on-and-off Test cricket against New Zealand, 35 wickets have fallen in 147 overs. They have tumbled at nigh-on the exact same rate as they did during the farcical two-day Test in Melbourne in the last Ashes series. The pitch has not been good. And it has been criticised as such for a number of years now.

Lord’s and the MCC’s greatest problem is one of volume. In an attempt to please everyone, it will play host to 62 days of cricket across the summer. A spectrum that ranges from England men’s and women’s Test matches and the Women’s T20 World Cup final, to the National Village Knockout and the final of the inaugural Knight-Stokes Cup, an under-15 competition for state schools.

There has been a resigned nature to the criticism of the pitch. Because it is widely accepted that the MCC, which as a business is considered to be far more progressive than the image the public has of the membership, is doing its best. The square is old and tired. But the idea of ripping it up and laying a new one, a process that would see cricket disappear from the venue for at least a year, is considered financial suicide.

As a result, alternatives have been pursued, such as the square being “steamed” over the winter, a process used at Wimbledon which sterilises the soil without using chemicals. The potential for drop-in wickets, like those used in Australia, is being explored, but would require the pitches to be made in 26-metre-long trays on the Nursery Ground, before they would have to be transported over the media centre with the use of a crane to then be laid out in the middle. The hope is that two to three drop-in pitches will be laid on the Nursery Ground later this year, where they will then ‘bed in’ and be ready for use in three years. A deal has also been struck with the nearby Wormsley Cricket Ground, who will host a handful of fixtures over the coming years on a two-year trial.

“We can put champagne bars all around the ground,” Rob Lynch, the MCC’s director of cricket and operations told The Cricketer earlier this year. “But, at the end of the day, it’s about the 22 players who go and play cricket out there.”

There is, however, a contradiction at the heart of the sympathies extended towards the MCC. Which is, if the problem is overuse and demand is too high, why do they keep saying yes to everything?

This summer alone, Lord’s will host three Test matches – two men’s, and its first-ever women’s Test – while Old Trafford will not stage any. Lord’s also has five Hundred matchdays, including the finals, and a men’s ODI. Cricket’s most prestigious venue is burning itself out, and yet still calling for more. The idea that the 22 yards in the middle are all that counts struggles to hold up when all the above fixtures will be well attended, and so too will be the champagne bars.

Whatever it is, the status quo is unsustainable. The MCC won’t consider relaying the square as that will mean years when they will be unable to host showpiece fixtures which they rely on for cash. But wickets like they have had this week means money is lost anyway. Any day’s play that features less than 15 overs results in a full refund for ticket-holders.

Lord’s is historic. Change must happen soon for it not to become history.

Photograph by PA Images / Alamy