Doctors for Extinction Rebellion’s protest puts MCC deals in spotlight

The rain came to Lord’s just after two in the afternoon. As the players walked briskly from the pitch, and the spectators popped their umbrellas or started to scurry for cover, a huge orange banner dropped down from the top tier of the Edrich Stand. “JP Morgan,” it read. “Stop bankrolling new oil and gas”. The font “JP Morgan” was written in matched the one used on the sponsored hoardings either side. The firm, which is the world’s leading investor in the exploration of new fossil fuels, has been MCC’s main corporate partner for the past decade and its branding is plastered all over the ground.

It wasn’t the first time there’s been a protest at Lord’s, but it was the first in a long while when anyone has managed to smuggle a banner in past the stewards or, perhaps, been willing to pay for tickets to do it. Protesters here in recent years have tended to stay outside the gates, or in one case, in 2008, chained themselves to them.

It was all very polite. The man and woman behind it, Chris Newman and Alice Clack, who are both members of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, explained that they had timed it so it wouldn’t interrupt play, because they didn’t want to ruin everyone’s day. Which meant they were less of a nuisance than the portly MCC member sitting in front of the pavilion, who held up the game when his garish egg-and-bacon blazer distracted Ben Stokes from his batting. The stewards told him to take it off. They took the banner down too, then escorted Newman and Clack out of the ground. “They were,” Newman said, “very kind about it.”

So, the banner wasn’t up long, but it didn’t need to be to embarrass MCC, who make great play of their green credentials. They released this statement later in the day: “MCC puts