Marylebone Cricket Club will consider accelerating memberships for women to address a gender-imbalance in the club with female membership currently just over three per cent.
The club circulated a consultation paper to its members this month asking them to consider whether female members should be fast-tracked up the waiting list or if other changes should be made to improve the gender diversity of the club.
After 211 years of its existence, the MCC voted to allow women to join the club for the first time in 1998, 22 years after England Women played their first match at the Home of Cricket.
At the time, the club’s committee said women would not be fast-tracked into becoming members, but the club has made concessions twice before as part of the Life membership campaign to raise money for the development of the stands.
A paper, seen by Telegraph Sport, notes a number of reasons to improve gender diversity in the club including that sponsors are “looking at how they can speak to men and women alike and the lack of diversity in the membership could influence this in the coming years, as well as having a negative effect on the club’s attractiveness to potential members, both male and female.”
The club is asking its members to consider key questions about whether the MCC should set a goal for female membership, whether female candidates should be “accelerated” up the waiting list, if membership numbers increased to accommodate a wider gender diversity and other key topics before the AGM this summer.
This summer Lord’s will host its first women’s Test match and the most days of women’s cricket in its history, including three group-stage matches and the final of the T20 Women’s World Cup.
Though there is no target set for female membership, at last year’s AGM, there was a proposed goal of 20 per cent of members to be women in 10 years’ time. At the current rate of progression, without any intervention, it would take another 35 years to reach that target.
“We’ve been acutely aware of this [the gender imbalance] for ages,” Mark Nicholas told Telegraph Sport in 2025.
“When I became president I said it would become a mission for me to improve that quite dramatically.
“I think that it’s a better club with more women and I think if you compare it to other cricket clubs around the country, you find that it was a very low percentage of female members.
“The problem has come because there’s a long waiting list, not because there’s a reluctance, so we’ve got to find out a way to do something about that, and we’re looking at that very closely now.”
However, any changes to the club’s membership policy requires the approval of two-thirds of existing members to be put in place, and any idea of “queue-jumping” on a waiting list that sits at 30 years is likely to have its opponents.
“It’s something that you have to go gently because you’ve got a long waiting list and you can’t queue-jump so the strategy of making it work is not obvious,” Nicholas said.
“And you won’t automatically get unilateral membership support, you’ll have to win some members over so it’ll take a lot of consultation work. Rather as we had to do for the Hundred actually.”
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Sonia Twigg
Women’s Sport Reporter Sonia Twigg
Sonia Twigg primarily writes about cricket, tennis and football. See more
Published 18 April 2026 9:29pm BST
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Marylebone Cricket Club, England women’s cricket team
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Marylebone Cricket Club members watch on
Marylebone Cricket Club voted to allow women to join the club for the first time in 1998, 211 years into its existence Credit: Mark Cosgrove/News Images
Marylebone Cricket Club will consider accelerating memberships for women to address a gender-imbalance in the club with female membership currently just over three per cent.
The club circulated a consultation paper to its members this month asking them to consider whether female members should be fast-tracked up the waiting list or if other changes should be made to improve the gender diversity of the club.
After 211 years of its existence, the MCC voted to allow women to join the club for the first time in 1998, 22 years after England Women played their first match at the Home of Cricket.
At the time, the club’s committee said women would not be fast-tracked into becoming members, but the club has made concessions twice before as part of the Life membership campaign to raise money for the development of the stands.
A paper, seen by Telegraph Sport, notes a number of reasons to improve gender diversity in the club including that sponsors are “looking at how they can speak to men and women alike and the lack of diversity in the membership could influence this in the coming years, as well as having a negative effect on the club’s attractiveness to potential members, both male and female.”
The club is asking its members to consider key questions about whether the MCC should set a goal for female membership, whether female candidates should be “accelerated” up the waiting list, if membership numbers increased to accommodate a wider gender diversity and other key topics before the AGM this summer.
This summer Lord’s will host its first women’s Test match and the most days of women’s cricket in its history, including three group-stage matches and the final of the T20 Women’s World Cup.
England celebrate after taking a wicket
England will play India in July in Lord’s first women’s Test match Credit: Tim Goode/PA
Though there is no target set for female membership, at last year’s AGM, there was a proposed goal of 20 per cent of members to be women in 10 years’ time. At the current rate of progression, without any intervention, it would take another 35 years to reach that target.
“We’ve been acutely aware of this [the gender imbalance] for ages,” Mark Nicholas told Telegraph Sport in 2025.
“When I became president I said it would become a mission for me to improve that quite dramatically.
“I think that it’s a better club with more women and I think if you compare it to other cricket clubs around the country, you find that it was a very low percentage of female members.
“The problem has come because there’s a long waiting list, not because there’s a reluctance, so we’ve got to find out a way to do something about that, and we’re looking at that very closely now.”
However, any changes to the club’s membership policy requires the approval of two-thirds of existing members to be put in place, and any idea of “queue-jumping” on a waiting list that sits at 30 years is likely to have its opponents.
“It’s something that you have to go gently because you’ve got a long waiting list and you can’t queue-jump so the strategy of making it work is not obvious,” Nicholas said.
“And you won’t automatically get unilateral membership support, you’ll have to win some members over so it’ll take a lot of consultation work. Rather as we had to do for the Hundred actually.”
MCC President Mark Nicholas
Speaking in 2025, former MCC President Mark Nicholas said he thought it was ‘a better club with more women’ Credit: Jed Leicester/Shutterstock
The MCC membership initially was not overly enthused by the club’s involvement in the Hundred, but will share ownership of the London Spirit alongside the Tech Titans group.
Another aspect mentioned in the document is that 15 per cent of women who completed a public survey in 2025 around the question of women’s membership mentioned “being uncomfortable with the perception of MCC” as a reason to be put off becoming a member.
Nicholas said: “Initially it can be quite intimidating for women, but once they join they realise it’s fine and they begin to really enjoy it and yet again that’s another narrative you’ve got to get right, you have to tell the right stories.”
The MCC has already utilised the main avenue at its disposal to increase female membership among its playing members. In 2024, there was a 77 per cent increase in women applying to qualify as player members, with women’s matches increasing by 34 per cent.
But changing the rules and regulations of a club more than 200 years old would be a significantly different challenge, and could upset thousands of those who are in the already-established queue.