MCC President Stephen Fry blames ECB for lack of women's matches at Lord's

Stephen Fry says MMC would like to host England in the women's tests. Credit: Getty Images/Gareth Copley

MCC President Stephen Fry says Lord's «would love» to host the women's test in England, but blamed the ECB for not making them available sooner.

The ICEC (Independent Cricket Fairness Commission) report, which was released earlier this week, singled out the MCC for their failure to run a women's single test at Lord's. The report states that «The House of Cricket is still primarily a men's home.»

Women's Ashes T20 will take place at Lord's on 8 July. This will be England's second women's game at this venue after the 2017 World Cup final (they played India there last September in an ODI).

ECB Chairman Richard Thompson acknowledged on BBC Radio 4 that the situation was «unacceptable» and said the ECB was committed to ensuring that English women play the test at Lord's by 2026.

However, Fry believes , it is not so. it's fair to put all the blame on MCC.

«We'll have women's ODIs for the next eight years,» he said in an interview with Test Match Special. “We have Ashes T20. We have been criticized for not having a female test here. But I think it's not good. This is something I won't accept. This is not our task, this is the task of the ECB.

“We would like to do a test for women here. Absolutely love it. It's also true that if we skip all the tests for women, some other reason says «the snobbish MCC gets all the tests.» You can't completely win.»

The ICEC report also urged MCC to be elitist due to the continuation of historic matches — Eton vs. Harrow, Oxford vs. Cambridge — and the fact that Lord's is the only major venue holding. in a country that does not allow the use of musical instruments.

“I am not going to deny that the report on racism, classism and misogyny in British cricket, which came out the other day from a task force tasked by the ECB to study this game, contained some really harsh truths,” said Fry.

“The idea that people can think that there is elitism and snobbery in the game is such a disaster for cricket. Regardless of your race or gender, cricket belongs to all of us. We must take note of this report.”