The incoming chief of the Marylebone Cricket Club takes over next week, promising to try to end an "often poisonous 16-year dispute" that has threatened the club's ability to redevelop its home, according to Matthew Engel of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Gerald Corbett, an experienced city operator, is the chair of the MCC, which used to run the game worldwide and "still exerts immense influence, above all as owners of Lord's," a 17-acre "slab of ultra expensive land" in St. John's Wood. Corbett is promising an "open and trusting" relationship between the committee and members, clearer day-to-day control for the exec and resolution of the arguments over redevelopment. The problems date back to the '99 sale of "two redundant rail tunnels that lie beneath the eastern edge of MCC's land." The tunnels were owned by Railtrack. MCC was offered the tunnels but showed "only halfhearted interest," and it passed at auction to Charles Rifkind, a property developer. There was an "interlude of peace" when the sides came up with a "grandiose underground/overground plan" known as The Vision. It was rejected, "largely at the insistence" of departing Chair Oliver Stocken. Since Corbett's selection, relations between the club and Rifkind have "been under repair" with no direct involvement from Corbett. There is a "new, far more modest plan, to build potentially lucrative flats" above the tunnels that could fund the rebuilding plan. The club is "awaiting replies to a long list of questions." One issue is whether the flats will obscure the view of the trees behind -- "which are seen as a crucial part of the ground's faux-rustic ambiance" (FT, 9/25).
