Major lift for Lord’s plan

MCC wanted the fuss over their Lord’s rebuilding plans to die down when an exhaustive survey saw 90 per cent of the membership reject property developer Charles Rifkind’s plan to finance new stands to the tune of £150m in return for building flats at the Nursery End.

But Rifkind and his supporters remain as active as ever judging by the appearance on the MCC’s online forum this week of a supportive 2011 letter from Sir John Major. Interestingly, the former Prime Minister’s letter to the committee was never shared with the backers of the development. SPORT suppliers Kukri, who kit out Team England for the Commonwealth Games, don’t get much publicity. So it wasn’t the best idea for the start of their kitting out for the Gold Coast games to coincide with the British Olympic Association’s similar procedure for next month’s Winter Games in PyeongChang. THE Football League’s former commercial director Richard Heaselgrave had a reputation for talking a better game than he delivered for the 72 clubs. But that has not been the case since he left in 2014 to join Tennis Australia, whose sponsorship revenues he has increased by £30million in four years.