The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia.
The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a power given to it by the government-appointed MCG Trust and an Act of Parliament. 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 and, in 1877, hosted the first game of Test cricket in history - played between Australia and England. In 1971, the ground hosted the first One Day International cricket match.
As well as cricket, the MCC is also an umbrella organisation for other sports - golf, lacrosse, baseball, tennis, lawn bowls, real tennis, shooting, field hockey and squash. Since 2009 the Melbourne Football Club has been the footballing division of the club having previously been part of the club from 1889 to 1980.
Read more about Melbourne Cricket Club: Membership, Reciprocal Clubs, Cricket "Team of The Century"
Famous quotes containing the words cricket and/or club:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“We have ourselves to answer for.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, pp. 24-5 (January 1870)