Cricket: MCC debate women's role

MCC's full committee meet at Lord's today for their annual winter meeting, with the question of allowing women to become members believed to be one of the items on the agenda.

They will discuss the wording of a resolution to be put to members at next May's AGM as promised by MCC's president, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, earlier this year.

"The question has been researched during the year and will be on the agenda at the AGM in May '98," Ingleby-Mackenzie said. "We should look to the future and appreciate the advantages of a more modern society."

The former England captain Rachael Heyhoe-Flint has campaigned for the right to join ever since she applied to join in 1991 and forced a postal ballot.

"Women and cricket are far more compatible other than just making sandwiches and serving behind the bar," she said. "Perhaps in time if women become members of the MCC there is no reason why women can't provide people for committees."

Now, given Ingleby-Mackenzie's attitude, Heyhoe-Flint may finally realise her ambition.