Stephenson takes on new Lord's role

John Stephenson, the former Essex and Hampshire allrounder who played one Test for England in 1989, has joined MCC as their new Head of Cricket. Stephenson, 39, replaces Tony Dodemaide, who has returned home to take charge of the Western Australia Cricket Association in Perth.

Stephenson, 39, starts work at Lord's next Monday (June 7). His main areas of responsibility include MCC's playing and touring programmes - which involve around 450 matches, in Britain and overseas, per year - as well as the strategic management of the playing and practice areas at Lord's, and supervision of the MCC Young Cricketers programme. According to The Times Stephenson was chosen from a short list that also included his former Essex team-mate Peter Such, the former England offspinner, and Tony Murphy, a former Surrey and Lancashire fast bowler.

Stephenson started his career with Essex, spending some time Gooch's opening partner - and he opened the innings for England with Gooch against Australia at The Oval in 1989, scoring 25 and 11. He moved to Southampton in 1995, and captained Hampshire in 1996 and 1997. But after a run of poor form he returned to Chelmsford in 2002, supposedly as 2nd XI captain - but ended up playing 13 of their 16 Championship matches, finishing as their leading wicket-takler with 48 and also scoring 562 runs. But he was restricted by an ankle injury last season, and has now decided to retire from county cricket. In all, he scored nearly 15,000 runs and took nearly 400 wickets in first-class cricket.

He said today: "It's a great honour and pleasure to be joining MCC at such an active and innovative time in the club's history. I am also fortunate to be joining such a strong team - including people of the calibre of Clive Radley [MCC's Head Coach] and Mick Hunt [the PCA Groundsman of the Year]. I am looking forward to working closely with them, and all my new colleagues, to continue improving Lord's and further enhance MCC's reputation as the most active cricket-playing and cricket-promoting club in the world. It will be a wrench to leave Essex, where I have enjoyed many very happy years, but I've always loved playing at Lord's - and I can't wait to start work there next week."

David East, Essex's chief executive, paid tribute: "John has given great service to Essex, in several different roles, over many seasons. On behalf of all our supporters, I would like to thank him for his many contributions to the Club - on and off the pitch. We will be sorry to see him leave us, but wish him every success in his exciting new role at Lord's."