The Marylebone Cricket Club on Wednesday named five distinguished India internationals among the latest cohort of cricketers the MCC has awarded honorary life membership to.
The Indian players who received the membership include World Cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, former women’s national captain Mithali Raj, and the legendary Jhulan Goswami.
The MCC announced the names of 19 new honorary life members who represented eight Test-playing countries. The club has also awarded a further two honorary life memberships for non-playing contributions to the game.
There are five players who are sole representatives of their countries on this year’s list. Merissa Aguilleira represented West Indies with distinction as a wicketkeeper-batter, whilst Mashrafe Mortaza enjoyed a 19-year career with Bangladesh as an impactful bowling all-rounder.
Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez represented his country almost 400 times across the three international formats of the game, most regularly as an opening bat, and South Africa’s Dale Steyn is recognised as one of the finest fast bowlers of his generation, taking 439 Test wickets.
Australia top order batter Rachael Haynes won six ICC tournaments with her country in a 13-year international career, as well as Gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Kiwi duo Amy Satterthwaite and Ross Taylor complete the list. The former played 145 ODIs for New Zealand, scoring over 4,500 runs in the process, whilst Taylor is regarded has one of their greatest men’s batters, helping them to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in 2021.
In the non-playing related categories, Dr Jane Powell has enjoyed a lifelong involvement in the game as both a player and coach and was appointed as Disability Performance Manager at ECB last year.
Medha Laud has dedicated her entire working life to the game and has spent over three decades working closely with England teams. She was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to cricket.
Once approved by the MCC Committee, letters of invitation are sent to the individual to accept. There is no set number per year. Nominees can accept and be granted the honour at any time.
The last cohort was revealed in October 2021 when 18 former international players were announced, including Sir Alastair Cook, Jacques Kallis, Harbhajan Singh, and Sarah Taylor.
