Marylebone Cricket Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, London, NW8 8QN | Project enquiries: Emma Peplow | 020 7616 8734

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3: Ongoing preparation

20 December 2010

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'Blaina Cricket Club: Phoenix From the Ashes'

Club member Chris Despres tells us how Blaina Cricket Club turned their fortunes around from the 1970s to become an extremely successful side in the 1980s

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Astley Bridge Cricket Club

Astley Bridge is a suburb of Bolton, one of the largest towns in England. Famous for a wide range of people from Samuel Crompton, the inventor of the spinning mule, to comedian Peter Kay; the town has a long history of textiles and mills and this trade helped the population to explode during the industrial revolution. Nowadays a richly mixed ethic community, Bolton is just as famous for its sport: boxer Amir Khan and England Cricket's Sajid Mahmood grew up in the town – Sajid was even a former Astley Bridge CC junior! Bolton also boasts the most cricket pitches of any English town and has three full cricket leagues within the district.

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7a - Stories from Spondon

7 June 2011

It has been a few weeks now since I travelled up to Spondon for a weekend of chatting, interviewing and hearing stories. I had a fantastic time – the guys all gave me great hospitality especially secretary Kath Green, her husband Paul, chairman Neil Kellogg, welfare officer Kim Baker and trustees Bob and Sue Thorne, to name just a few.

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Sri Lanka 3: Seenigama and the MCC Centre of Excellence

22 January 2012

Sun 22nd January

This afternoon I had a fantastic trip down to Seenigama, on the coast between Colombo and Galle, to visit the MCC Centre of Excellence. I was taken down by Kushil Gunasekera, the President and founder of the Foundation of Goodness, and the manager for planning and development, Fazana Ibrahim. The trip was a surprisingly short one – a new highway has just opened between Colombo and Galle that has cut down the travel time enormously, to the relief of Kushil and Fazana who make this journey several times a week. Driving through fields and rubber plantations before we headed back on to the old Galle road by the sea, it was an absolutely beautiful drive.

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Taking the Field is a collaborative project between the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at the University of Glamorgan. It aims to create a collection of digital media stories - short oral histories complemented with music, video and photographs - that reflects the importance of grassroots cricket to local communities in both the UK and Sri Lanka.

Our purpose is to tell the story of local cricket clubs, all of which will be showcased here on our website. Each of our clubs has their own page and space to share their histories, stories and photographs. See the clubs already involved in our 'clubs' section. We also have helpful tips on how to start your research, conduct oral history interviews, and create digital stories in our ‘resources’ section. If your local club wants to get involved and share its history and its story, please register with the site or get in touch!

Tamil Union - Black July

Ceylon Women v England Women, 1st November 1948

Reflecting on Sri Lanka (1): The 'lovers' quarrel' big match in Galle...

Although cricket in Sri Lanka is dominated by the male game, interest in the national women's team is growing. The women's squad and women’s domestic competition are now an official part of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), and receives the full support of the governing body. The international and development squad are directly contracted with SLC and most players also have positions in the armed forces that allow them to devote their time fully to cricket. Whilst still growing and developing, the women’s game has a sound infrastructure and the players, most of whom did not start cricket until long after the average Sri Lankan boy, are growing in experience and stature.

The Colombo club Nondescripts CC was founded in 1888. At that time all but one of the cricket clubs in Ceylon were exclusively European and barred Ceylonese from joining. The philosophy of the NCC was 'to cater to all sportsmen, irrespective of caste, creed, politics or nationality.' These principles still guide the club today. Situated in the heart of Sri Lankan cricket - Maitland Place, Colombo 07, next to the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) and Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) – the NCC still retains an intimate, old-world feel with little advertising on the ground.