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Tony Lewis, the MCC president, is to seek a vote of confidence in the committee at a Special General Meeting over the issue of members' rights to free admission to Lord's.

That was the result of last night's packed annual meeting attendance was well over 1,000 - when the main issue debated was the suspension of free admission for the three World Cup matches to be played at Lord's. These include the opening game of the competition between England and Sri Lanka, in eight days' time, and the final on June 20.

Although there more speeches in favour, rather than against, the committee the grievance of a large section of the membership was that the committee had concluded negotiations with the England and Wales Cricket Board without consultation with members.

It was against this background that the committee asked the membership to vote on an amendment to the club's Rule 2.5, which read: ``Full members shall at all times be admitted free of charge to the Ground, Pavilion and Members' Enclosure for all cricket matches staged at Lord's.

``The Committee shall not, without the consent of a General Meeting of the Club or, as set out in the rules, seek to alter or interfere with this right by the provision of Regulation or otherwise, save where it is necessary to comply with the Club's Safety Certificate or for unforeseen or unavoidable reasons.''

There was a footnote to this proposal stating that the amendment would not come into force until after the World Cup. A member asked for the new rule to be anulled and a fresh amendment will be put before the membersip. The meeting accepted this proposal.

In view of the committee's decision to hold a Special General Meeting, which will not take place until late July, all business on the agenda, including the above proposal, was put on hold. The adoption of the report and accounts for 1998 will have to wait, and also the election of members of the new committee. In fact, the meeting, though it lasted two hours and 20 minutes, was something of an anti-climax.

However, following a question from the floor on the discrepancy of £2.3 million between the estimate for the building of the new NatWest Media Centre and its ultimate cost, the chairman of the Estates Committee, Brian Thornton resigned. His announcement was received with sympathetic applause.

The ECB was also a target for attack from some of the members, who said that as MCC had only one seat on it, being part of it was hardly worthwhile and that it might be more purposeful for MCC to bring its influence to bear from the outside.