Sajeda Momin

London: Anyone who has ever visited the world famous Lord’s cricket ground cannot leave without a visit to its large souvenir shop to pick up a cricket ball or a mug as small memento, but soon you might be able to buy clothes and even suncream branded by the home of cricket.

The Marylebone Cricket club, which owns Lord’s has decided to capitalise on its instantly recognisable name by becoming one of the world’s leading brands.

“We are competing with other major grounds and paying more to host major matches than ever. Cricket is so global now that we could link up with the cricket-playing countries and the emerging ones around the world. If we do this properly, we can create one of the world’s leading brands,” said Keith Bradshaw, the MCC secretary.

Apart from its souvenirs consisting of ties, cufflinks, scarves, caps, T-shirts and other traditional items, the signature of Thomas Lord, after whom the ground is named, already appears on Premium 12-year-old Whisky and Premium London Dry Gin. These are both available in a few selected stores, but now there are proposals to market it on much wider scale.

“Lord’s wine could be the next product and suncream,which is sold in the Lord’s shop, could go on sale in the big stores,” said Jon Robinson, the club’s marketing manager.

So far they have not finalised the clothing items they are likely to make but are considering using the images of Father Time, the ground’s distinctive weather vane as one of the logos. It is also believed that the Ashes urn, which is the property of the MCC,could also be used as a logo on a range of merchandise.

“Designers have been into Lord’s to see how we can maximise the potential of each brand. But we have to brand the home of cricket carefully. We do not want to cheapen it,” said Bradshaw.

The club refused to say home much money they hope to make out of the new projects claiming they were not making any projection for this year. Any money raised from the endeavour, however is not expected to go towards the £200 million redevelopment of Lord’s, but to the MCC’s “spirit of cricket” initiative, which promotes the game.

Source : DNA