Melbourne Cricket Club
Encyclopedia
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It was founded in 1838
1838 in sports
-Boxing:Events* 3 April — in his return fight with Ben Caunt, William "Bendigo" Thompson is disqualified in the 75th round for going down without being struck....
and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia.
The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
, a power given to it by the government-appointed
Government of Victoria
The Government of Victoria, under the Constitution of Australia, ceded certain legislative and judicial powers to the Commonwealth, but retained complete independence in all other areas...
MCG Trust and an Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
. This also guarantees the club's occupation of about 20 per cent of the stadium for its members reserve.
In 1859, the MCC was involved in the drafting of the first set of rules for Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
and, in 1877, hosted the first game of Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
in history - played between Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
and England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
. In 1971, the ground hosted the first One Day International
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...
cricket match.
As well as cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, the MCC is also an umbrella organisation for other sports - golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, lawn bowls
Bowls
Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...
, real tennis
Real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis , is descended...
, shooting
Shooting
Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...
, field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
and squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
. Since 2009 the Melbourne Football Club
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
has been the footballing division of the club having previously been part of the club from 1889 to 1980.
Membership
The Melbourne Cricket Club is the largest sporting club in Australia. As of August 2010 there were 101,509 members of the club, of which 61,180 were "full members" and 40,329 were "restricted members", with 205,732 people registered on the waiting list. The waiting list for Restricted membership consists of people nominated after 31 May 1995.Full membership entitles members to entry to the Members' Reserve at the MCG for all cricket and football matches and most special sporting events.
Full members also have a number of added benefits, which include reciprocal rights at clubs and stadiums around Australia and overseas as well as the opportunity to attend numerous club functions exclusive to MCC members. Restricted members also have access to events, with the exception of the AFL Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
. Full members, but not restricted members, are also permitted to nominate candidates for the waiting list and to vote on club affairs.
Reciprocal clubs
Members of the MCC are able to access the members' area of reciprocal clubs, typically while on a short visit to the area. These benefits, with the exclusion of the VRCVRC
VRC is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:*Vaccine Research Center*Vancouver Rowing Club, formed in 1886*Vertical redundancy check*Veteran Reserve Corps*Victoria Racing Club...
and Docklands Stadium, are reserved for full members. These clubs include:
- Docklands Stadium Axcess One, Melbourne
- Victoria Racing ClubVictoria Racing ClubThe Victoria Racing Club was founded in 1864. It was formed following the disbanding of the Victoria Turf Club and the Victoria Jockey Club. A legacy passed from the Victoria Turf Club was the annual “race that stops a nation”, the Melbourne Cup, which was first contested in 1861.From its...
(VRC), Melbourne - Sydney Cricket GroundSydney Cricket GroundThe Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
, Sydney - Brisbane Cricket Ground Trust (GABBA), Brisbane
- South Australian Cricket Association (Adelaide Oval)Adelaide OvalThe Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
, Adelaide - West Australian Cricket Association (WACA Ground)WACA GroundThe WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
, Perth - Tasmanian Cricket Association (Bellerive OvalBellerive OvalBellerive Oval, also known as its sponsored name Blundstone Arena, is primarily a cricket and Australian Rules Football ground located in Bellerive, City of Clarence, on the eastern shore of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia...
), Hobart
Also other overseas grounds, including the Singapore and Hong Kong Cricket Clubs, the Cricket Club of India
Cricket Club of India
Cricket Club of India is located on Dinsha Wacha Road, near Churchgate in Mumbai, India. It is one of the oldest and most well known cricket clubs in India...
and the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(Lord's).
Cricket "Team of the Century"
On 1 December 1999, the MCC announced its cricket team of the century, with all players who had played at least one season for the club since 1906-07 being eligible for selection. The team as selected was:- Bill PonsfordBill PonsfordWilliam Harold "Bill" Ponsford MBE was an Australian cricketer. Usually playing as an opening batsman, he formed a successful and long-lived partnership opening the batting for Victoria and Australia with Bill Woodfull, his friend and state and national captain...
- Colin McDonald
- Dean JonesDean Jones (cricketer)Dean Mervyn Jones AM is a retired Australian cricketer, and is presently a coach. He also worked as a media commentator.-Career:...
- Hunter HendryHunter HendryHunter Scott Thomas Laurie Hendry was a cricketer who played for New South Wales, Victoria and Australia national cricket team.Nicknamed Stork, he was a formidable batsman who bowlers found difficulty in delivering to...
- Paul SheahanPaul SheahanAndrew Paul Sheahan was an Australian Test cricketer who played 31 Tests and 3 One Day Internationals as an opening and middle order batsman between 1967 and 1974.He made his first class debut in 1965 for the Victorian Sheffield Shield against New South Wales scoring 62 and 5.An elegant stroke...
- Warwick ArmstrongWarwick ArmstrongWarwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...
(Captain) - Hugh TrumbleHugh TrumbleHugh Trumble was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of...
- Robert TempletonRobert Templeton (cricketer)Robert Ian Templeton is a former Victorian cricketer.He was born in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia.In 1999, Templeton was named as the wicket-keeper in Melbourne Cricket Club's "Team of the Century". He played in two first-class matches for Victoria in 1982/83.-External links:**...
- Max Walker
- Hans EbelingHans EbelingHans Irvine Ebeling MBE was an Australian cricketer and cricket administrator....
- Bert IronmongerBert IronmongerHerbert Ironmonger was a Victorian and Australian cricketer....
- Vernon RansfordVernon RansfordVernon Seymour Ransford was an Australian cricketer who played in 20 Tests between 1907 and 1912. His best series was the 1909 tour of England when he topped the Australian batting averages, helped by a career best score of 143 not out. The following year he was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year...
(12th Man)
All members of the team of the century except Robert Templeton had played at least one Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for the Australian cricket team
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
.