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MUMBAI:
Marylebone Cricket Club and the DLF Indian Premier League
have announced a partnership to support the MCC Spirit of
Cricket initiative at the inaugural season of the league to
be held across eight cities in India from 18 April to 1 June.
The
agreement will see each of the eight Indian franchises sign
an MCC Spirit of Cricket Declaration at the opening ceremony
to demonstrate their commitment to upholding the spirit of
the game.
MCC
secretary and CEO Keith Bradshaw said, “We are delighted
that, right from the outset, the DLF Indian Premier League
is embracing the MCC Spirit of Cricket initiative. This is
an innovative and forward-thinking league that has captured
the imagination of the cricketing world and it is pleasing
that each player and each team will play their part in supporting
the very best traditions of the game.
“The
Spirit of Cricket is a worldwide concept that affects all
players of the game, from the grassroots to the elite level,
and we believe it’s fitting for MCC – a worldwide
cricket club with an independent voice in the game –
to promote the Spirit of Cricket in partnership with the DLF
Indian Premier League. We look forward to a league full of
great cricket and
superb cricketers playing in the right way – hard but
fair.”
IPL
chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi says, “I am happy
that the DLF Indian Premier League will adopt MCC’s doctrine
on the Spirit of Cricket. This partnership between the DLF
Indian Premier League and MCC is both exciting and important.
It is exciting to be associated with the most famous cricket
club in the world, which is the custodian of the Laws of Cricket
and the upholder of the spirit of the game.
"More
importantly, all the cricketers playing in the inaugural season
of the DLF Indian Premier League are role models for an entire
generation of youth and it is crucial for youngsters all over
the world to learn straight away the values of this great
game and the spirit in which it should be played. The eyes
of the world will be on the DLF Indian Premier League and
we want to see cricket, and the Spirit of Cricket, at its
best.”
MCC
is the custodian of the Laws of Cricket. When the current
Code of Laws was introduced in 2000, it included, for the
first time, a Preamble on the Spirit of Cricket. Colin Cowdrey
and Ted Dexter, two MCC Members (and ex-England captains),
were at the forefront of this MCC Spirit of Cricket campaign.
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