Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara will be offered a one-year extension as president of the Marylebone Cricket Club in the “extraordinary circumstances” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the MCC said on Wednesday.

Sangakkara became the first non-British president of the MCC, the custodian of cricket’s laws, when he took over in October last year.

The disruption caused by the outbreak prompted the MCC committee to offer the 42-year-old to continue until 30 Sept 2021, a motion likely to be approved in its 24 June annual general meeting.

“Whilst Presidents of MCC only normally serve for a twelve-month period, it is not unprecedented for longer terms to be introduced to respond to extraordinary circumstances,” MCC said in a statement, citing the stints of Lord Hawke (1914-18) and Stanley Christopherson (1939-45).