Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:18 AM

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                                             MCC World Cricket Committee to meet at Lord’s this week
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*        Three years of the Indian Premier League and progress made towards a World Test Championship to form part of discussion
*         First meeting for MCC World Cricket Committee’s newest member Steve Bucknor
*        Media briefing on Friday 2nd July at 1.30pm
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A meeting of the MCC World Cricket Committee will be held in the Committee Room at Lord’s on Thursday 1st July and Friday 2nd July.
 
It will be the first MCC World Cricket Committee meeting attended by Steve Bucknor, the former ICC Elite Panel Umpire, who has accepted an invitation to become the group’s newest member.  Bucknor becomes the second MCC World Cricket Committee member, after Courtney Walsh, to hail from the West Indies.
 
Among the main items on the agenda are:
 
Progress from ICC since the joint session held in November 2009
 
The MCC World Cricket Committee and ICC Cricket Committee held a joint meeting in Dubai last November to discuss the future of Test and ODI cricket.  The MCC World Cricket Committee were forthright on the need for a World Test Championship and presented their blueprint for such a competition.  David Richardson will report via telephone link on the progress made by ICC in the intervening period.
 
Three years of the Indian Premier League
 
Rahul Dravid – who plays for the Bangalore Royal Challengers – will present his findings after three years of the Indian Premier League.  The Committee will also consider how the tournament has affected cricket viewing in India, both in-ground and on television.
 
Bats and balls and bouncers
 
The Committee will assess the impact from worldwide testing of pink cricket balls, with specific feedback provided by Geoff Boycott and Shaun Pollock.
 
The Committee will also discuss illegal bowling actions, switch hits, double bounce balls and the size of cricket bats themselves.
 
Other matters
 
After trials in England and plans for trials in Australia, Mike Gatting and Tony Dodemaide will provide an update on the subject of split-innings cricket and the Committee will discuss the current situation of the Umpire Decision Review System. 
 
 
For clarification of any details relating to media arrangements, and to request a specific one-to-one interview with a Committee member, please call or email Neil Priscott on 07876 746038 / neil.priscott@mcc.org.uk
 
 
Established in April 2006, the MCC World Cricket Committee is an independent voice in world cricket, free from considerations of politics, money and race.  It meets twice yearly.
 
The Committee’s debates and decisions are made solely in the interest of cricket and its players.
 
The Committee is empowered to conduct research, particularly into technological advances and bio-mechanical elements of the game.  MCC funds this work as part of its commitment to develop cricket worldwide.
 
Steve Bucknor’s invitation fits perfectly the requirement that every member of MCC’s World Cricket Committee should have up-to-date experience of cricket currently played at the professional level.  Membership of the Committee is voluntary and unpaid.
 
No-one has umpired more Test matches than Steve Bucknor. Between 1989 and 2009 the man from Montego Bay stood in 128 Tests.  Bucknor also umpired in five consecutive world cup finals – a record – between 1992 and 2007. His first final came with just four Tests under his belt, and the middle three were umpired alongside the late David Shepherd, who sat on the MCC World Cricket Committee until his death in October 2009. In total Bucknor umpired 181 ODIs.
 
The full list of Committee members is as follows (those in italics will not be attending the meeting later this week at Lord’s):
 
Tony Lewis (Chairman)
Mike Atherton
Mike Brearley
Geoffrey Boycott
Steve Bucknor
Martin Crowe
Tony Dodemaide
Rahul Dravid
Andy Flower
Mike Gatting
Majid Khan
Anil Kumble
Shaun Pollock
Barry Richards
David Richardson
Alec Stewart
Michael Tissera
Courtney Walsh
Steve Waugh