India to sponsor Lord's cricket ground?

London:

Marylebone Cricket Club is planning to approach India to sponsor a revolutionary 400 million pound redevelopment plan of the historic Lord's ground, according to a report.

'The Times' quoted Keith Bradshaw, MCC chief executive, as saying that he hoped to sell sponsorship packages to India.

"That is obviously an option but you reach a point at which you do not want to sell your soul," Bradshaw said.

The report said the MCC, the owner of the ground, planned to transform the 195-year-old cricket ground into a "21st-century super-stadium" with 7,500 more seats, a bigger museuem and an underground cricket academy.

The revamp would offer naming rights for the cricket ground's seven stands which will no longer have the testimonials to such legends of the game as Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Sir Pelham Warner and Sir Gubby Allen.

The plan will be submitted to Westminster City Council after approval by MCC members.

But Bradshaw in another report of the same newspaper denied he will consider selling the naming rights for Lord's.

"I just want to reassure people that there's no way we would rename Lord's. It's the home of cricket, the hallowed turf. It's not an option at all," he said.