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The committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club have asked for a vote of confidence from the membership at a special general meeting this evening at Lord's. The situation springs from members having had to pay for admission to the three World Cup matches staged at Lord's.

Admission to Lord's has always been free to MCC members. Its one-off suspension for the World Cup was due to the fact that the competition was held under the aegis of the International Cricket Council in profit-sharing partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

From the members' angle, the point at issue is not that they were made to pay, but that they were not consulted before the deal with the ICC and the ECB was completed.

This was in contravention of an undertaking they were given at a stormy annual general meeting 12 years ago. Enclosed with the notices of tonight's proceedings was a letter from the president, Tony Lewis, which concluded with an apology from the committee for not having given members a prior opportunity to express their views.

The World Cup issue is only the tip of the iceberg. Many members are still resentful about the manner in which the committee thrust the admission of women members down their throats. The drastic reduction of car parking space also rankles. A new red rag is perceived in the literature accompanying the notice. The club, in laying out their plans for the future, state that provision is included for a second ground capable of supporting a full range of matches, among them Middlesex first-class fixtures.

This is thought to refer to the development of the MCC's ground at Shenley Park in Hertfordshire and could be interpreted as a hint of the future banishment of county cricket from Lord's.