JOIN USIndia will be approached for buying sponsorship rights as part of a 400 million pound redevelopment plan, Keith Bradshaw, chief executive of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord’s, told The Times newspaper.
Bradshaw told the paper he hoped to sell sponsorship packages to India before exploiting naming rights. He conceded: “That is obviously an option but you reach a point at which you do not want to sell your soul.”
But Bradshaw later strenuously denied he will consider selling the naming rights for Lord’s.
“I just want to reassure people that there’s no way we would rename Lord’s. It’s the home of cricket, the hallowed turf. It’s not an option at all,” he said.
He told the BBC: “It’s something that we wouldn’t consider, and in fact I even have a real problem even considering renaming the stands within the ground that are now dedicated to famous cricketers.
The Times, in its main news story of the day, reported that the MCC planned to transform the195-year-old cricket ground into a “21st-century super-stadium” with 7,500 more seats and an underground cricket academy.