MCC rules out rescuing crisis club Middlesex after Gatting’s damning letter

The MCC has ruled out buying or investing in Middlesex as their long-term tenants at Lord’s begin another season in a state of crisis.

A group of distinguished former players led by the former England captain Mike Gatting has called on chairman Richard Sykes to stand down due to poor performances on the field and long-standing financial and governance problems, with an open letter published yesterday claiming that Middlesex are “drifting towards irrelevance.”

As Middlesex’s landlords since 1877 with annual revenues of around £70m an MCC takeover has long been mooted as a potential solution to the club’s problems, but it will not happen under their current leadership.

While MCC remains committed to extending Middlesex’s lease at Lord’s and will provide further help where possible, there are no plans to offer them direct financial assistance or become more involved in the running of the club, as there is no business case to do so.

The MCC’s membership secretary, Mahdi Choudhury, was seconded to Middlesex as interim chief operating officer earlier this year following the suspension of the club’s chief executive Andrew Cornish, but he will return to his employers later this month.

Cornish has taken leave of absence from Middlesex pending the outcome of an investigation by the Cricket Regulator into allegations of misconduct, which he denies.

While the MCC share the concerns of many in the game about Middlesex’s plight the leadership regard their primary responsibility as serving the interests of their 24,000 members, as well as providing leadership for the sport as a whole through their new global advisory board, and numerous charitable initiatives.

In addition MCC is also 51% owners of the London Spirit Hundred franchise, along with the so-called Tech Titans consortium that paid £145m for their 49% share.

In addition to their governance issues, which could result in Sykes facing a vote of no confidence from members at the club’s AGM on 15 April, Middlesex’s financial problems are compounded by the fact that they cannot access the £24m they are theoretically owed from the ECB’s part-sale of the eight Hundred franchises.

In order to provide the £500m windfall being squandered on wages and operating costs the ECB insist the counties can only use it to clear debt, which Middlesex do not have despite posting losses last year, or for major infrastructure projects.

While Middlesex would like to build their own second home away from Lord’s, £24m is insufficient to do so, and a proposed joint venture with American investors was blocked by the ECB last year as it would breach their County Partnership Agreement, which prohibits external influence.

Breaching the CPA would lead to a loss of ECB funding, which currently accounts for 60% of Middlesex’s income, so is a non-starter.

As a result Middlesex are exploring taking the club into private ownership, but the process of demutualisation would require a 75% majority vote from a turnout of at least 50% of their membership, which Sykes described last year as “a challenge, both logistically and emotionally”.

Middlesex start the season against Gloucestershire on Friday in the second division of the County Championship for the third successive year, the eighth out of the last nine years they have spent in the second tier.

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