The internationally renowned shortlist of architects that MCC will draw up to design five new stands at Lord’s as part of its £200 million development of the ground will include Herzog & de Meuron, which built the Tate Modern Gallery in Central London and the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, and HOK Sport, the company that built Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. One firm, or possibly more, will be appointed this summer.

MCC is also likely to consider whether to reengage three architects it has employed since the club’s bicentenary year of 1987: Sir Michael Hop-kins, who designed the Mound Stand; Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, who rebuilt the Grandstand; and Future Systems, which devised the futuristic media centre. The intention is to create an architectural village feel, with each building being iconic in its own right.

The club is examining whether to erect Meccano-style removable flood-lights, which would bend over the top of the new stands and shine more directly on to the square. “We could take these away during Test matches and in the winter and they would not leave a footprint,” Keith Bradshaw, the secretary of MCC, said. “Four or five of these lights would be more expensive than ordinary retractable lights, but they could also be used on other grounds.”

The club is seeking a ten-year staging agreement for Test cricket at Lord’s with the ECB. “That is what our members will want in support of our redevelopment,” Bradshaw said. “We have financial strength in terms of capability to outbid anyone else.”

David Batts, who is in charge of the redevelopment, said: “I am sure there will be some people who will object, but that is always the case with a redevelopment.”

Batts, Tony Lewis, chairman of MCC’s world cricket committee, and Bradshaw will shortly present the ninth of their roadshows for MCC members in Cardiff. The city’s revamped Sophia Gardens, home to Glamorgan, will be in direct competition for the second of the Tests at present staged at Lord’s each summer. “We expected competition,” Paul Russell, the chairman of Glamorgan, said yesterday. “I believe in a free market and the system is now transparent and fair.”

Rod Bransgrove, the chairman of Hampshire, whose Rose Bowl ground is also competing with Lord’s, said: “I welcome the competition. It looks as if the ECB is going to insist on everyone slugging it out on a financial basis and I’d like to think we have raised the bar. The winner is the cricket spectator.”

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