2005 Pavilion undergoes £8.2 million redevelopment
1999 Media centre (aka the gherkin) opened at the Nursery End
1998 Women admitted as members of MCC and allowed into the pavilion for the first time
1996 Old grandstand demolished at the end of the season and work on new grandstand (Architect: Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners) started (completed in 1998)
1995 New indoor school opened
1991 Compton and Edrich stands (Architect: Michael Hopkins & Partners) opened after a contentious building programme which ran over budget and over time
1990 First public tour of Lord’s
1988 Electronic scoreboard used for the first time
1987 Bicentary of MCC marked with a game between MCC and Rest of the World. New mound stand (architect: Michael Hopkins and Partners) opened.
1977 New indoor school opened.
1976 First women’s match (England v Australia ODI)
1975 First World Cup final (Australia v West Indies)
1968 New Tavern Stand opened (architect: Kenneth Peacock.)
1963 First limited-overs final (Gillette Cup, Sussex v Worcestershire)
1958 Warner Stand opened on site of old A enclosure (architect: Kenneth Peacock.)
1953 Coronation Garden opened
1949 First time former players are honoured with life membership
1938 First televised Test match (v Australia)
1934 Q Enclosure (renamed the Allen Stand in 1989) opened (architect: Sir Herbert Baker.); Harris Memorial Garden opened
1926 Grandstand opened (architect; Sir Herbert Baker) and topped with the Father Time weathervane, a gift from the architect
1923 Grace Gates opened (architect: Sir Herbert Baker) as a tribute to WG Grace, “The Great Cricketer”
1909 Imperial Cricket Conference (subsequently the International Cricket Council) formed. It retained its headquarters at Lord’s until 2005
1899 Albert Trott becomes the first -and to date only – man to hit a ball over the current pavilion
1898 Old Mound stand built on the site of the tennis courts, and new court built behind the pavilion
1890 Pavilion built (architect: Frank Verity) at a cost of £21,000 and constructed in eight months
1888 Lord’s future threatened by a plan to compulsorily purchase an area of land to build a new railway. This scheme was subsequently defeated
1887 Three-and-a-half acres of agricultural land (Henderson’s Nursery) bought, now the Nursery End ground
1884 The first Test at Lord’s (England v Australia) making it England’s third Test venue (behind The Oval and Old Trafford)
1868 Old Tavern built (architect: Edward Paraire)
1867 Original grandstand built (architect: Arthur Allom)
1866 MCC buy freehold of the ground for around £18,000. The club had declined to bid six years earlier when it was sold for £7,000
1846 Printing tent erected and up-to-date scorecards sold for the first time
1827 First Oxford v Cambridge match (the oldest first-class fixture)
1825 Original Pavilion destroyed by fire and all early MCC records lost. First Oxford v Cambridge match (the oldest first-class fixture)
1814 Thomas Lord’s third ground opened

Brian Lara has told England they must forget about trying to play a containing game if they want to wrest the Ashes back from Australia. England, who have lost their last eight Test series against them, are now second behind Ricky Ponting’s men and hopes of a first Ashes triumph since 1986-87 have been stirred by victories in the past two limited-overs matches.”Australia know it’s a more competitive English team that it is facing,” Lara said after the tsunami appeal one-day match at Lord’s. “It’s going to be a good contest, I don’t know if it is going to be close, but I know England are playing good cricket at present. Australia love teams that sit back, be patient and try to win a game from a few mistakes by the Australian team. They [England] have to be aggressive all the time, three sessions a day, 15 sessions a Test match.”England beat Australia by six wickets in the Champions Trophy semi-final in September and on Monday won the Twenty20 match at The Rose Bowl by 100 runs. “The last two successes England have had over the Australians, it’s because of aggressive cricket, attacking cricket,” Lara said.”They played it better than Australia, they didn’t sit back and allow the world champions to dictate. That’s what they need to do in the triangular series coming up and in the Test series.” Australia’s first match against England in the NatWest Series is at Bristol on Sunday.Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, also predicted a great summer and said it was England’s best chance to win the Ashes for years. “The billing is one and two in the world, I can’t wait to watch it,” he said. “[The Twenty20] was a spar, the first of many I’m sure,” Fleming said. “We need to acknowledge that the last two years of their Test cricket has been superb. [England] have got every right to feel confident they can challenge Australia.”Fleming, whose best result against Australia was 0-0 in three Tests in 2001-02, said to topple the world champions five or six players needed to have outstanding series. “I haven’t beaten Australia so I’m in no position to advise Michael Vaughan,” he said. “We’ve tended to compete for a period of time. The trick is to compete for the entire series. That’s the challenge, maintaining a higher standard for a longer period of time.”Lara said after the tsunami match that he wasn’t sure if it was his final game at cricket’s home. “I thought the Test match [last year] was,” he said. “I’ve always loved playing at Lord’s. Every time I go out there I try to make sure that people see the best of me.” West Indies next tour England in 2007 when Lara will be almost 40.

After the second day of their match against Manicaland at the beautiful, if often damp, Mutare Sports Club, PG Timbers Mashonaland had played themselves into an unassailable position.Belying their reputation of starting many of their matches at half pace, they hammered a mammoth 640 runs before declaring, statistically just inferior to their own Logan Cup record of 644 scored against Matabeleland last season, but more impressive as this time they had only four wickets down as against nine on that occasion.Mashonaland’s top scorer was Craig Evans, aged 33 and at his peak of maturity as a batsman. Last season he hit 210 here to lead an incredible fightback that brought his team an astonishing victory after following on. This time he exceeded that with an unbeaten 228, still hitting powerfully but showing that extra discretion that has brought him 912 runs in his last six Logan Cup matches. Evans, in the past considered a one-day specialist at international level, last played a one-day international two and a half years ago, but is determined to win back his place for the coming World Cup.Evans was assisted by two maiden centuries. Dion Ebrahim already has a one-day century to his credit, although Bangladesh as opposition are at present nothing to boast about, but this was his first century at first-class level. He might have made it a double, being 178 overnight, but was able to add only four runs to that score on the second morning.The other was by Tatenda Taibu, who seized his opportunity due to Andy Flower’s being unwell. It was a particular pleasure to see him scoring an unbeaten 114, and hopefully this will add to his confidence and help him to score the runs of which he is capable at international level. Evans shared partnerships of 284 and 226 unbroken with these two.The captaincy of Henry Olonga, posted to Manicaland by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union simply to strengthen them for the Logan Cup, came under some criticism. His bowling changes at times showed lack of imagination and he maintained an attacking field for much too long. With the batsmen well set and on top on a shirt-front pitch, he would have been expected to guard his boundaries better, but instead his unrealistically close fields allowed the Mashonaland batsmen too many easy runs. Still, it is a better fault than being too defensive, but the field must match the situation.As the innings continued well into the second day, the Manicaland fielders wilted, and although they missed no chances – neither did they received any on Day Two – there were too many misfields, the bowlers lost accuracy, and in the end Evans and Taibu were scoring virtually at will. The declaration came just after lunch, and the overall scoring rate was nearer five than four to the over. Off-spinner Richie Sims set an unwanted record by becoming the first Zimbabwean bowler to concede 200 runs in an innings in domestic first-class cricket, but he bowled better than his figures suggest and suffered more than any from too attacking a field.In reply Manicaland did not collapse, but neither did they fill their boots on the fine pitch. Neil Ferreira, always the backbone of the Manicaland batting, cannot succeed every time, but he survived a torrid opening spell from Gus Mackay and his 42 did give his team a solid start. Four other batsmen passed 20 but failed to capitalize, the top scorer being Alistair Campbell with 62.Stuart Matsikenyeri and Guy Croxford should have seen out the day, but neither showed the discretion warranted, and Croxford finally gave his wicket away in disappointing fashion just before the close. Barring some remarkable performance – and Guy Whittall, the one man likely to provide it if anybody did, is out injured – Manicaland seem doomed to follow on and slide to an innings defeat.

Once upon a time the first round of matches in the County Championship was an eagerly anticipated rite of passage – the clocks may have come forward and the daffodils may have bloomed, but spring could not officially be declared open until the pavilion gates had closed behind the players and umpires.It’s all a bit different these days. An exhaustive glut of international matches has drowned out those first cuckoos, and more is in prospect, with England’s Test and ODI calendar rammed to the gunwales from May to September. As a result, many of the country’s top players will once again be forbidden by their contracts from turning out for their teams. If the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack served up a damning appraisal of the county game last year, this time around it has delivered an even more brutal snub – it hasn’t even reached the nation’s bookshelves in time for the start of the 2003 season, because publication was delayed so that the World Cup could be included.The season – in case you blinked, or have been locked in a darkened room since the first Test at Brisbane last November – actually began last week, with four of the most untrumpeted first-class matches on record, between counties and university teams. But tomorrow at 11am, the real thing begins, and on the hottest April weekend in memory to boot. It is appropriate weather for a sport that no longer believes in an off-season.That off-season does still exist, of course, although the behind-the-scenes machinations have been almost as exhausting as the winter’s international treadmill. Leicestershire have undergone a coup de shire, with eight players, including the captain Vince Wells, driven from the ground amid mutterings about lawsuits. Graeme Hick has been sacked as captain of Worcestershire, Shane Warne was appointed – and hastily replaced by John Crawley – at Hampshire. And Phil Tufnell has chosen to face his demons Down Under, on the reality gameshow I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, rather than commence a 17th season at Middlesex.But it is the structural changes to the county game that will cause the most upheaval in the coming months. Out goes the Benson & Hedges Cup, in comes the Twenty20 Cup, a mid-season, early-evening slogathon designed to attract a “new breed” of spectator, presumably the type with a short attention span. In the absence of any rest, a change will have to do, and it can only be hoped that the experiment is a success.Another change, largely to offset the loss of so many international players, is the reintroduction of two overseas signings. Not since the heyday of county cricket in the early 1980s has such a move been permitted, but much of the lustre has since been removed. When international cricket was the exception, not the rule, the likes of Joel Garner and Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Malcolm Marshall would light up the county stage. These have now been replaced, for the most part, by journeymen and greenhorns although, as in all walks of life, there are several honourable exceptions.Inevitably, money matters have dominated the winter agenda. The announcement of funding cuts by the ECB – in the wake of the Zimbabwe affair – have prompted renewed speculation about the future of the county game. Glamorgan, who say they couldn’t afford to hire a second overseas player, have mooted the possibility of a cross-border merger in the not-so-distant future. The two-division Championship format, meanwhile, is entering its fourth year, and by the end of 2002, the disparity between the haves and have-nots of the county game was becoming ever more evident.The 2002 Championship was won at a canter – for the third time in four seasons – by county cricket’s millionaires, Surrey, and it is difficult to look beyond them for yet another triumph. “We’ve been favourites for every game we’ve been in for the past four or five years,” said Adam Hollioake, their hugely respected captain. “We just turn up and play.” Turn up and play, and win, of course.For Hollioake, 2002 was a year that began in desperately tragic circumstances, with the death of his brother Ben in a car crash in Perth. He took his time to return to the game, but then channelled his grief into some of the most spectacular form of his career. Surrey is a team moulded in his fervent image, and an outfit chock-full of international players can only be strengthened by Alec Stewart’s likely retirement from England’s one-day side, especially if Rikki Clarke and a rejuvenated Graham Thorpe – and possibly Hollioake himself, maybe even as captain – find themselves winging in the other direction.At the opposite end of the spectrum lie Yorkshire, beaten and broke and riven with internal policking. The very year after claiming their first Championship for three decades, they were relegated to the second division, and an immediate return to the top is imperative for their new captain, Anthony McGrath, who took over after (but not, apparently, because of) Darren Lehmann’s much-publicised PR failure against Sri Lanka.Two fixtures stand out on the opening day: Essex v Middlesex at Chelmsford, where Ronnie Irani returns to the day job and Andy Flower begins life after that protest; and Surrey v Lancashire at The Oval, which already has the look of a potential Championship decider, even with Andrew Flintoff forced to sit out the match and Harbhajan Singh threatening to miss the entire season with a finger injury. In the second division, Jonty Rhodes and Jack Russell are threatening to form the quirkiest fielding and middle-order batting partnership since Derek Randall and mountain-climbing Bruce French left Notts, and their livewire personalities could spark Gloucestershire to more than just one-day trophies.Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo in London.

Alok Kapali is back in favour with the Bangladesh selectors, after being named in a 14-man squad to face New Zealand in the first Test at Dhaka, beginning on Tuesday.Kapali, one of the more gifted players in the Bangladesh set-up, was dropped ahead of the Champions Trophy, although he was later reinstated following the finger injury to the captain, Habibul Bashar.Bashar, who underwent surgery to correct the problem, is back to lead the side, although he will undergo a late fitness test on Monday, to determine whether he is fit enough to play.The opening batsman, Hannan Sarkar, is also back in the squad, alongside the medium pacer, Alamgir Kabir. The former Under-19 captain, Nafis Iqbal, is another notable inclusion and could yet make his Test debut.Bangladesh Habibul Bashar (capt), Rajin Saleh, Khaled Mashud (wk), Javed Omar, Mohammad Ashraful, Manjurul Islam Rana, Tapash Baisya, Mushfiqur Rahman, Mohammad Rafique, Tareq Aziz, Nafis Iqbal, Hannan Sarkar, Alok Kapali, Alamgir Kabir.

Lord Paul Condon, head of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit, believes that a number of misunderstandings contributed to the “bad and unfair experience” suffered by West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt during the recently held ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka.Lord Condon’s comments came in a letter to Skerritt following a meeting with the West Indies manager and Rev. Wes Hall, president of the West Indies Cricket Board, in Colombo on Monday.The meeting reviewed the events that led up to a Sri Lankan newspaper story which insinuated that police found “prostitutes” in the hotel-rooms of Skerritt and team analyst Garfield Smith.”I have spoken to the Sri Lankan police and staff at your hotel, Rev. Wes Hall and my ACU colleagues, and there is no reason to doubt at all what you have said publicly and to me,” Lord Condon wrote.”Cultural and language differences clearly played their part. However the most important factor was that the Sri Lankan police exceeded the guidance my unit gave to the Sri Lankan cricket board.”There is no reason to prevent visitors to your room whoever they are, unless there is a link to malpractice. You were understandably upset and the subsequent inaccurate press article seems to be sourced to the local police.”Skerritt had asserted in his letter of demand to the newspaper that the article had been deliberately planted to sully his good name and the West Indies team.”The article contains absolute falsehoods and innuendoes made deliberately with the intention of causing damage and embarrassment to [me],” he said.Lord Condon concluded his letter by informing the West Indies manager that a review of the incident had been put on record at the ICC’s Executive Board meeting in Colombo on Monday and thanked Skerritt for all the co-operation the ACU received from the West Indies team.Skerritt and the rest of the West Indies squad left Colombo on Tuesday for India where they will contest three Tests and seven limited-overs internationals.

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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

England took a stranglehold on the fourth Test at Trent Bridge as the bowlers ripped out five Australian wickets in the final session to follow up Andrew Flintoff’s first Ashes century. Matthew Hoggard was the chief destroyer with three wickets while Simon Jones grabbed one and Steve Harmison removed Michael Clarke with the last ball of the day.Flintoff’s partnership of 177 with Geraint Jones allowed England to post their third consecutive first innings total over 400 in the series and for the third time in succession Australia’s batting cracked under the pressure. Hoggard – as yet the one England bowler who has not had a major say on the series – then relished conditions which suited his swing bowling and moved the ball considerably, leaving Australia’s batsmen playing around their pads and giving the umpires plenty of work.Matthew Hayden was the first to go, as Hoggard swung one back into his front pad as he attempted to get outside the line of off stump. Ricky Ponting was then caught on the crease by Jones and things went from bad to worse when Damien Martyn was also given out lbw to Hoggard but there was a suggestion of an inside edge. After his unlucky dismissal in the second innings at Old Trafford, Martyn can again consider himself unfortunate to have been on the wrong end of another rough decision.Clarke and Justin Langer countered the early wickets with some positive shots but the bowlers were always kept interested by the swing. Langer was tentative about the movement and when Hoggard produced a delivery which swung back and bounced a little he gloved it to Ian Bell at short leg. In the previous over, from Flintoff, he had been cracked on the side of the helmet by a ball that lifted from a length and Hoggard took advantage of his uncertainty – and his ringing head.Still the Australians refused to shut away their attacking instincts – a marked difference from the ultra defensive attitude Ponting adopted in the field – as edges flew wide and just short of the slip fielders. While Ponting’s only answer to England’s batting was to post men on the boundary, Michael Vaughan was constantly thinking. His decision to recall Harmison brought the wicket of Clarke, when he was the fourth player to be trapped lbw.Although Flintoff is the only England paceman yet to take a wicket it was his batting, along with a feisty 85 from Jones, which set up England’s commanding position. The pair’s partnership was their highest in Tests and recaptured the effervescent stands they produced during England’s success last summer. It ensured England posted their biggest first innings total of the series despite Shane Warne performing his usual clean-up operation on the tail.

They added 103 during the morning session and then put their foot down at the start of the afternoon as England aimed to stamp their authority on the match. Runs came at five an over as Flintoff peppered the boundary with an array of rasping shots against an increasingly forlorn Australian attack.The only bowler Ponting could rely on for any control was Warne and he threw the ball to his legspinner as Flintoff raced towards his century. Then followed a fascinating passage of play as Warne lobbed the ball into the rough trying to tempt Flintoff into a rash shot. But this innings had been the perfect exhibition of how Flintoff has matured as a cricketer. He waited until he was able to clip a ball into the leg side to reach his first Ashes century – and fifth overall – from 121 balls. Flintoff took in the moment by raising his bat to the rapturous applause from the full house.Such was the cleanness and selectiveness of his strokeplay, a huge innings was there for the taking before he lost some of his control against Shaun Tait, swishing across the line to a ball that would have clipped leg stump. It was revenge for Tait who had been harshly treated by Flintoff when he took the new ball. The slightly ugly shot that ended Flintoff’s innings should not detract from what can be considered his most important Test knock.At the other end Jones reached his own milestone when he passed fifty from 93 balls and two thunderous straight drives off Michael Kasprowicz took Jones into the eighties with a second Test century looming. However, Kasprowicz finally got his man when Jones got a thick inside edge on to his pad, which looped onto the on side and Kasprowicz held a superb low catch in his follow-through.Ashley Giles followed in the next over, trapped lbw as Warne finally gained some reward for his toil and then he made Harmison look slightly clueless having him well stumped by Adam Gilchrist. Warne again managed to finish with a four-wicket haul when he ended the fun between Hoggard and Jones but once again, even though his own figures turned out to be respectable, England had the runs on the board.The way in which Warne ran through the lower order confirmed the importance of the Flintoff-Jones partnership, which came together after Kevin Pietersen had fallen early to Lee. However, the entire Australian side felt they should have broken the stand with the first ball after lunch but, not for the first time, Steve Bucknor disagreed and replays suggested Lee had cause for his disappointment. When a team is struggling luck is often one of the things that deserts you.With every passing day of this series there are more and more signs that this is an Australian team on the decline. Ponting set extremely defensive fields, seemingly only having trust in Warne to keep control over England’s batsmen. He appeared a captain short of ideas and short on options as he took up his now familiar head-scratching pose. If he thought he had a headache after the England innings he will now be reaching for the strongest painkillers available.

EnglandKevin Pietersen c Gilchrist b Lee 45 (241 for 5)
Andrew Flintoff lbw b Tait 102 (418 for 6)
Geraint Jones c and b Kasprowicz 85 (450 for 7)
Ashley Giles lbw b Warne 15 (450 for 8)
Steve Harmison st Gilchrist b Warne 2 (454 for 9)
Matthew Hoggard c Gilchrist b Warne 10 (477 all out)
AustraliaMatthew Hayden lbw b Hoggard 7 (20 for 1)
Ricky Ponting lbw b S Jones 1 (21 for 2)
Damien Martyn lbw b Hoggard 1 (22 for 3)
Justin Langer c Bell b Hoggard 27 (58 for 4)
Michael Clarke lbw b Harmison 36 (99 for 5)

Nottinghamshire 336 beat Gloucestershire 103 (Kadeer Ali 55*, Ealham 5-31) and 169 (Lewis 55, Ealham 4-44) by an innings and 64 runs
Scorecard
Points Table

Gloucestershire produced one of the truly abject performances of the summer, losing 20 wickets in 72 overs and gifting title-chasing Nottinghamshire an innings victory inside two days. Their relegation confirmed last week, Gloucestershire did not even appear to be able to play for pride. Their misery was completed when they were docked 1.5 points for a slow over-rate.Mark Ealham did most of the damage, grabbing 5 for 31 before lunch and adding another four second time round, taking him past 50 wickets in a season for the first time. Only Kadeer Ali offered anything other than token resistence in the morning, carrying his bat for a dogged 55, and as the last rites were being read, Jon Lewis smacked 55 off 26 balls.A deflated Mark Alleyne, Gloucestershire’s coach, said: “As much as you try and motivate yourself and the players, it doesn’t work like that. People need something more precious to play for than pride and it wasn’t enough.”Nottinghamshire extended their lead at the top of Division One to 24 points, but they have a hard run-in with games at Kent and, in what could be a title decider, second-placed Hampshire.”We’ve got the only two teams who have beaten us left to play,” said Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket. “But we’re in front and so we’ll be happy if it rains now for two weeks.”

Bangladesh’s tour to India next year is still shrouded in doubt, according to Ali Asghar, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president. Following his return from the ICC meeting in Melbourne, Asghar revealed that he has not received confirmation from the Indian board.”Bangladesh’s tour of India is still on for sometime in next September-October. But we will get a definite response from India only after the approval of ICC’s next Future Tour Programme (FTP) which will be ratified in March next year,” Asghar told .Bangladesh’s inaugural Test was against India in 2000 and India played a full series against them in Bangladesh in 2004. However, the Indian board is yet to allow Bangladesh a return visit .Their tour to India was stalled twice but in the same period India played Pakistan at home. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, former BCB president, has criticized Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the BCCI president, on this issue.Asghar said that the Future Tour Programme is yet to be approved following objections from the Asian and African members, and was adamant that Bangladesh’s away series should be included in the ICC’s calendar. “The interests of the Asian and African Test countries didn’t reflect in the draft FTP, rather it hugely favoured Australia and England. We wanted to play at least two series at home in a year during the period because it would be our main source of income. We have desired to hold at least two triangular series involving India and Pakistan during the next six-year cycle.”India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka all raised objections to the tour programme as it did not allegedly uphold the interests of the Asian countries. Asghar confirmed that the ICC is expected to announce a final Future Tour Programme in its next meeting, to be held in March 2006.

The dispute inside the Mashonaland Cricket Association took another twist at the weekend with the revelation in the Zimbabwe Standard that a Harare court has ruled that the current board is holding office illegally.The newspaper claimed to have possession of documents relating to a court case in June in which it was found that the MCA, led at the time by Tavengwa Mukuhlani, was not constitutionally elected. Mukuhlani resigned last month blaming ongoing disputes in the province for his decision, and was replaced by Cyprian Mandenge.Rather bizarrely, Mandenge, who was vice-chairman of the MCA at the time, was named in the court papers as being one of those challenging the legality of the very board he now heads.The revelations are another stain on the MCA, which is now embroiled in a bitter war with its own member clubs. Last week, it expelled six clubs from its main league alleging indiscipline on their part.Mandenge was one of those who allegedly stopped a league game between two of the expelled clubs in Harare the weekend before last, with witnesses claiming that players were threatened and racially abused.