MCC is cosying up to Shah during World Test Championship between South Africa and Australia
Lord’s looks a little different this week. The grass is the same shade of green, the pavilion still terracotta red, but the International Cricket Council, which runs the World Test Championship, has papered over every last trace of everyone else’s branding, from the posters outside publicising Middlesex’s upcoming games, to the sponsors’ logos spray-painted on the outfield. They’ve changed every last hoarding and billboard around the ground, and reprogrammed the three big screens so that they display, throughout the game, the slogans of their own sponsors. “Thums up Cola! Taste the Thunder!”
They’ve even installed six big bright-orange sofas in the Allen Stand, on behalf of Sobha Realty, which goes by the motto “Art of the Detail”. There were unconfirmed rumours that an apparatchik had been spotted taping over the egg-and-bacon stripes on the members’ ties. Anything to make sure everything is arranged exactly as the ICC’s chair, Jay Shah, likes it.
Written by Andy Bull at Lord’s
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/11/icc-chair-jay-shah-lords-world-test-championship under the title “ICC chair Jay Shah likes what he sees at Lord’s and that can only be a good thing | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
