MCC to allow women's Varsity match to be played on main Lord's square from next year

Marylebone Cricket Club has said it would allow the women's Varsity match, between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to be played on the main square at Lord’s for the first time next year, in a victory for the Stump Out Sexism campaign.

While the men’s Varsity Match has been played on the main Lord’s square for almost 200 years, the women’s match has never been played there. This year the women’s Varsity fixture is being played at Wormsley, with the men’s game staged at Lord’s on May 23. A request to MCC to allow the women’s fixture to be played on the main Lord’s ground was received only on May 12, too late to be accommodated this year, especially with Covid-19 causing further complications.

But with only one day each year given over to the Varsity Match - due to the packed calendar - to play the women’s Varsity Match at Lord’s would mean the men’s game would become a Twenty20 fixture, rather than a 50-over game as has been the case. It is up to Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club to arrange the format for the Varsity fixture. Should the two clubs agree, it is possible that men’s and women’s T20 games - which are currently played in either Oxford or Cambridge on a rotating basis - could be played at Lord’s from 2022.

“MCC would be happy to accommodate a men’s and women’s T20 double header next year if the universities decide that’s how they wish to proceed with this fixture,” said Guy Lavender, the chief executive and secretary of the MCC. “This is primarily a matter for the universities themselves. For obvious reasons, we are unable to accommodate the specific request received this year, so close to the match day itself.

“The Club is fully supportive of women’s and girls’ cricket and continue to make strides in this area.”

Lavender’s comments come after Vanessa Picker, Oxford’s captain from 2017-20, had written to senior members of the club saying that "denying the women's Blues access to Lord's, while allowing our male counterparts to maintain exclusive access, reinforces damaging narratives about the inferiority of female cricketers."

It is understood that Oxford and Cambridge cricket clubs made a request to the MCC last year to stage a women’s T20 or Hundred match on the main square at Lord’s immediately before the men’s game. The proposal was rejected, with the MCC believing it would not be practical to fit 140 overs into a single day.

Roisin McCallion, a former Oxford student from the Stump Out Sexism campaign, said that attempts - led by Picker - to move the women’s Varsity Match to Lord’s had been underway for 2½ years. McCallion claimed that, when the matter was raised, “Oxford and Cambridge told us that it wasn't even worth approaching.

“Had they asked 2½ years ago when this was first started, the women could have been treated in an equitable manner to the men since then.”

Jonathan Orders, the chairman of Oxford University Cricket Club, said: “I was surprised Vanessa wrote to MCC about this, as the schedule of Varsity matches and their venues was very amicably agreed by our committee, which obviously includes the women’s section, back in November. Of course, we take the issues Vanessa raises very seriously and they are subject to ongoing discussion. I can assure you the development of women’s cricket is a high priority for both universities, and both unis merged the men’s and women’s sections recently with this aim in mind.”

McCallion said that equality for the Varsity match for men and women was only the first ambition of the Stump Out Sexism campaign.

“If the Varsity match is sorted, the next thing in our campaign would be to increase year on year the number of women's fixtures played at Lord's, and also to get a direct commitment on paper from the MCC, that they will commit to working in line with the ECB strategy to improve the involvement of women and girls in cricket across the next few years,” she said.

“The important thing to emphasise is, we don't see this is an issue of one team or two teams being treated badly. We see this as symbolic of the wider mistreatment of women in sport.”