Requests for a commemorative picture of the England side together with air hostesses of Emirates Airlines - the tournament sponsors - in front of the pavilion before the one-day final were rejected; then hundreds of spectators were still queuing for their tickets long after the start of the game.

A club spokesman explained that it was long-held MCC policy not to allow any kind of advertising associated with the pavilion area. ``It was certainly nothing to do with the debate about allowing in women members ,'' he stressed.

A similar request was made last month by British Airways who had been involved with the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial game involving MCC and a Rest of the World side but this had also been turned down.

``It would have needed a committee meeting to get the rule changed and there was simply not enough time,'' he added. ``Advertising associated with the pavilion has never been allowed.''

An ECB spokesman said they had been taken aback at the rejection. ``We were told that we could have a picture taken behind the ground at the Nursery End but that was only 20 minutes before the start of the match and we weren't prepared to ask the players to go all the way over there at such a time.''

Spectators were lined up round one side of Lord's long after the game had begun and some failed to get into the ground until 90 minutes after the match had started.

The MCC spokesman admitted: ``There were chaotic scenes. The problem was that about 2,000 people had rung up on the eve of the game to reserve their seats and though we asked them to turn up early to collect their tickets the queues didn't start building up until about an hour before the scheduled start. The result was that the one collection point we had open couldn't cope with the demand.

``Clearly we can't allow this to happen in the World Cup and we'll be learning lessons from this experience.''