Cricket: Spaceship takes off at Lord's

THE OPENING of the new NatWest media centre at Lord's, designed by Jan Kaplicky and his wife, Amanda Levete, has turned this cricketing corner of NW8 into a veritable gallery of bold architecture. A triumph of both form and function, it offers up to 200 journalists a stunning vantage point that should remove the need for educated guesses - of whether Bloggs was undone by an off-break or an arm ball - to be made.

As the latest of several stunning new buildings that have appeared at headquarters over the last decade, and with women now allowed to join the club, few can doubt the MCC's willingness to embrace the new. Indeed, as Levete herself put it: "The MCC are obviously visionaries, having given the job to a bloody foreigner and a skirt."

The giant curved structure, which many have already likened to a spaceship on stilts, was in fact inspired by cricket equipment. According to Kaplicky, the idea came after looking at bats and batting helmets.

Most may find that a difficult mental leap to make, but Kaplicky is a Czech who managed to get out when the tanks rolled into Prague during 1968. Staring down the barrel, especially if it is 85mm, tends to make you view things in a different way.

Built at a cost of pounds 5.8m, approximately half of which was put up by NatWest, the building owes much to aircraft technology and the use of aluminium and glass. At first sight many may consider it slightly garish standing directly opposite the Victorian pavilion, finished in 1890. However, Kaplicky felt that, too, would probably have been considered bold for its period, particularly the large windows of the Long Room.

For once, though, Tony Lewis, the president of the MCC, was probably speaking for the majority when he paid tribute to the building. "We believe this architecture is a signal for the country and it complements a ground where every cricketer in the world wants to play," he said.

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