The screen is to be put to further use in showing archive film footage of W G Grace visiting the ground in his 50s. An exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of his birth has been running at Lord's since May. The 50-overs match pitting the MCC, captained by Michael Atherton, against a Rest of The World XI has attracted a near-capacity crowd, with tickets at half the price of last weekend's bedraggled Benson and Hedges Cup final. The MCC are cultivating a family atmosphere for a grand occasion.

Today's teams compete for the W G Grace Trophy, which will have to be treated with care if any joyous celebrations are contemplated. The Waterford crystal prize has been valued at £20,000. The MCC hope to raise in excess of £750,000 for the Diana Fund mostly through match tickets, satellite television fees and some notable assistance from British Airways, who have flown in officials, players, family and friends free of charge.

The selectors have been restricted by availability problems which mean, for example, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and the Waugh brothers could not be considered. Atherton and Graeme Hick are the only two England players.

An intriguing part of the contest is that Sachin Tendulkar's Rest of the World side have a strong batting line-up while the MCC side have been loaded with bowling. Indeed, the MCC look decidedly flimsy in batting by one-day standards - but events could always turn out differently.

MCC: *M A Atherton, Aamir Sohail, S Chanderpaul, M Azharuddin, S C Ganguly, B M McMillan, +I A Healy, A Kumble, J Srinath, A A Donald, G D McGrath.

Rest of World: *S R Tendulkar, Saeed Anwar, S T Jayasuriya, P A de Silva, G A Hick, T M Moody, +A Flower, C L Cairns, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, I R Bishop.

Umpires: D R Shepherd and S Venkataraghavan (India).