MCC Membership

MCC has 22,000 Members around the world. They include some of the most distinguished players in cricket history - such as Bishen Bedi, Richie Benaud, Sir Ian Botham, Rachael Heyhoe Flint and Sir Garfield Sobers.

The Club has two main categories of Membership. MCC's 18,000 Full Members have a wider range of rights, in return for their higher subscriptions, than its 4,000 Associate Members. For example, Full Members can attend all major matches at Lord's, vote at MCC's Annual General Meetings and nominate Candidates for future membership of the Club.

There are three ways in which such Candidates can become Members of MCC.

First, they can become Playing Members by appearing in a minimum number of MCC matches - probably ten, spread across two consecutive years. (Playing Candidates need to be under 40, and capable of playing to a strong club's 1st XI standard.)

Secondly, they can become Out-Match Members, after appearing in the same number of MCC matches over the same period. Out-Match Members do not receive the right to watch matches at Lord's and, accordingly, pay a low annual subscription.

Finally, Candidates can become Ordinary Members of MCC. However, the Waiting List is a particularly long one, as the number of people wanting to join MCC always exceeds the number of vacancies that become available.

Therefore an Ordinary Candidate currently has to wait approximately eighteen years before becoming a Full Member of MCC (although he or she should be given an opportunity to become an Associate Member long before then).

As indicated above, both men and women are equally welcome to become MCC Members and, with the Club's women's teams having an increasingly active playing programme, it is becoming easier, year by year, for women to join MCC, comparatively quickly, as Playing Members.

Please note that all Candidates for MCC membership must be aged at least sixteen before being nominated. They must be proposed, seconded and sponsored by Full (or Senior) Members of MCC and each application needs to be endorsed by either: a current member of the MCC Committee; a current member of an MCC sub-committee; or a current Area Representative appointed by the MCC Committee to assist in the organisation of its out-match playing programme.

In total, therefore, four MCC Members need to support a person's nomination for Membership of the Club. In the case of Playing and Out-Match one of these four people - or, if preferred, another Full Member - must support the Candidate's ability as a cricketer on his/her proposal form.

All Ordinary and Playing Candidates need to pay a Registration Fee (£172, in 2007) before their names are entered into the Club's books. (For Out-Match Members, this figure is £10.)

This Registration Fee is deducted from the Entrance Fee which is payable if the Candidate is elected as a Full Member of the Club.

Proposals for membership are available only to Full or Senior Members of the Club.

As well as enabling them to play and watch cricket, MCC offers its Members a wide range of other benefits and activities - including thriving bridge, golf, chess, backgammon, tennis and squash sections.