Mervyn King has today become President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with 1 October marking the start of his year in office. He was announced as successor to Mark Nicholas at the Club’s Annual General Meeting in May.
Lord King is an economist who was Governor of the Bank of England for a decade between 2003 and 2013, following which he entered the House of Lords having been made a life peer. He was appointed as a Knight of the Garter by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.
Elected as a Member of MCC in 2003, Lord King’s lifelong passion for cricket was first nurtured as a boy watching Worcestershire and he became President of the county club in 2015.
He co-founded Chance to Shine in 2005, along with Nicholas and the late Duncan Fearnley, to reinvigorate state school cricket and ensure that all children are given the opportunity to play the sport. The charity has gone on to make a huge impact on the lives of young people through cricket, with over 6 million children having taken part in their programmes.
Lord King said of his appointment: "I am honoured to be asked to be President of MCC and I have been greatly looking forward to taking on the role since the original announcement was made earlier this year".
“There are several big issues surrounding cricket as a whole at the moment and I am eager to promote the interests of the Club and its Members, for the benefit of the game, during the forthcoming year.”
Further changes to the MCC Committee are also taking place, with Nicholas now in office as Club Chair, replacing Bruce Carnegie-Brown in the role.
MCC Members approved the appointment of Nicholas for a three-year term at the AGM in May. The journalist, broadcaster, writer and former cricketer has been a Member of the Club since 1981 and has served as President for the past year.
He served on the Club’s Cricket committee for a decade, having joined it whilst still playing professional cricket in 1994. He has also served on the Marketing committee, and the Laws, Spirit and Ethos sub-committee.
A Non-Executive Director of the media rights agency, River Media Partners, and Co-founder/Director of Century Cricket, Nicholas stood down as Chair of Southern Brave in The Hundred earlier this year.
Emma John joins the MCC Committee in her role as Chair of the Heritage & Collections committee, taking over from Jonathan Orders, who has retired from the role.
John is an author and journalist whose cricket-writing career spans 25 years and she was the first woman in the UK to win a Sports Journalism Award. She has been a Member of MCC since 2015 and has served on the Heritage & Collections committee since 2020.
Alongside editing roles at Wisden Cricket Monthly, Observer Sport Monthly and the Observer Magazine, she has covered major sporting tournaments including the Olympics, Ashes, Wimbledon, and Rugby and Cricket World Cups, and authored three nationally acclaimed books.