World Cricket Connects will return to Lords in 2025 following the establishment of World Cricket Connects

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) today announced that World Cricket Connects, the event that brings together the game's most prominent thinkers, voices and influencers, will take place again in 2025.

The forum, which proved hugely popular in bringing together influential people from all aspects of cricket in its inaugural year in 2024, will be held at Lord's on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2025, ahead of the ICC World Test Championship Final between South Africa. and Australia.

The inaugural event saw approximately 120 leading voices from the world of cricket gather in the Long Room last July to discuss the many challenges and opportunities in global cricket. They included representatives from across the game and industry, including directors from the ICC, full and associated nations, leading broadcasters, technology experts, coaches and both current and former international players.

As the Club continues to develop the World Cricket Connects concept, the intention is for this to become the leading symposium in the game, facilitating debate on strategic issues in an independent forum and building consensus on opportunities to drive future success of cricket.

To achieve this goal, MCC today unveiled a new World Cricket Connects Advisory Board (Connects Board) has been formed. This independent group will shape the annual World Cricket Connects agenda, help facilitate the event's discussions and in turn maximize the opportunity for a real impact on the health of the game.

MCC is pleased to confirm that the following names have accepted invitations to join the Board:

• Kumar Sangakkara (Chairman – Former Sri Lanka Captain and Former President of MCC)
• Anurag Dahiya (Chief Commercial Officer at ICC)
• Chris Dehring (CEO at West Indies Cricket)
• Sourav Ganguly (Former captain of India and former president of BCCI)
• Sanjog Gupta (CEO Sports, JioStar)
• Mel Jones (Former international and current broadcaster from Australia)
• Heath Knight (captain of England)
• Trudy Lindblade (CEO at Cricket Scotland)
• Heath Mills (Executive Chairman of the World Cricketers' Association)
• Imtiaz Patel (Former chairman of SuperSport, MultiChoice and DStv)
• Jay Shah (Chairman of the ICC)
• Graeme Smith (Former South Africa captain and league commissioner at SA20)
• Andreas Strauss (Former England captain and former director of cricket at ECB)

The Connects Board replaces the MCC World Cricket committee. Many of the areas of the global game that were debated and influenced as part of its remit will now be taken up and discussed by the Connects board. Established in 2006 as an independent body, the committee completed a range of significant work on a range of topics in the game, including day/night Test cricket, the World Test Championship, accelerating the pace of the game, multi-format cricket, sporting events such as the Olympic Games, and stronger deterrents against corruption. The last meeting of the committee took place at Lord's last summer.

The new Connects board will meet virtually throughout the year during the planning of World Cricket Connects, and in person immediately following the annual event. The Connects Board will work closely with the World Cricket Connects working group, led by MCC Chairman Mark Nicholas.

Nicholas said of the announcement:

“Firstly, we are excited to bring World Cricket Connects back to Lord's in 2025, ahead of an immense encounter between South Africa and Australia in the ICC World Test Championship Final. We look forward to welcoming many of the game's most influential figures to debate the key topics dominating global cricket.

“In planning the second event, an important step has been taken in the formation of the World Cricket Connects Advisory Board. We have assembled an impressive group of the brightest cricketing minds in various fields relevant to our sport. I am pleased to be working with this experienced group and am excited about what we can achieve together for the benefit of the global game.”