Like her sporting hero Geoffrey Boycott, Theresa May is renowned for playing a very straight bat and for her stout defence in the face of hostile bowling.
Now the prime minister is set to emulate the Yorkshire legend by becoming a member of the most prestigious cricket club in the world.
Senior figures at the MCC — the Marylebone Cricket Club — are quietly plotting to get May fast-tracked to membership in the new year.
Normally a prospective member needs to be supported by four existing members to be considered. Even then they face a wait that is now 27 years to get in.
The Sunday Times has learnt, however, that private discussions have already taken place among senior members about finding backers for an application by the prime minister.
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Committee members at Lord’s have also agreed to catapult her to the top of the waiting list when they next meet on February 8.
May’s predecessor Sir John Major was given accelerated membership after only two years on the list when he was prime minister. David Cameron also became an MCC member in 2011 while he was in Downing Street. But he was elected after waiting for 24 years, having joined the list in 1987.
An MCC spokesman said: “The prime minister is not a candidate for membership of the MCC at present and the MCC committee has therefore not discussed electing the prime minister out of turn.
“As and when she becomes a candidate, that’s something that the committee would, of course, discuss.”
Another source said: “There is a group of people who would like to give the prime minister a Christmas present and names are being canvassed to propose her. The understanding is that the committee will be happy to elect her out of turn.”
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The prime minister is a keen cricket fan and sought to facilitate relations on a trip to India last month by presenting the country’s leader, Narendra Modi, with a silver cricket bat.
She has spoken in the past of how as a girl she had a poster of Boycott on her bedroom wall. “I have been a Geoff Boycott fan all my life,” she said. He “solidly got on with what he was doing”.
The decision is likely to please Boycott, who has said May was a “strong” leader and predicted she would be “like Margaret Thatcher”.
A No 10 source said May was unaware of the plan.
