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A new kind of leadership will be required of Lord MacLaurin this morning when the 18 first-class counties and MCC meet at Lord's for the spring meeting of the First Class Forum. The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board has been the catalyst for root and branch reform in the last two years, but statesmanship rather than financial acumen will be needed if an immediate solution is to be found to the increasingly serious financial dispute between the board and the clubs who stage international matches.

Important cricketing decisions, including the possibility of another new county competition next season and a verdict on the idea of visiting captains automatically winning the toss in County Championship matches to avoid the preparation of 'home town' pitches, must, unfortunately, be subordinate to the argument over staging rights.

Despite conciliatory noises from the chairman, a spokesman warned yesterday that the meeting is unlikely to resolve the issue of terms for this summer's World Cup games and for future Tests and internationals, including the four Tests against New Zealand, which start on July 1. The two issues are separate and have been confused in some reports.

It is evidence of a lack of consultation between the Test grounds and the central authority that the two clubs celebrating centenaries of Test cricket on their grounds this year (Headingley and Trent Bridge) are the two who have not been granted Tests; and also that the World Cup final and the two one-day finals at Lord's have been scheduled for Sundays, significantly reducing the profits normally available to MCC for letting their hospitality facilities. An MCC spokesman said: ``This will decimate our income.''

The scheduling of Sunday matches, presumably to suit television but apparently without the prior consultation with the ground authorities, which was surely demanded of the board out of courtesy as well as for sound business reasons, has annoyed other clubs, too. Yorkshire, for example, have been given three World Cup fixtures, each one of them on a Sunday, and the attractive West Indies v Australia match at Old Trafford is also on a Sunday.

The International Cricket Council will take 60 per cent of World Cup profits and the ECB now say they are expecting an overall surplus of no more than UKP 30 million, far smaller than the event in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka three years ago when most of the profit was kept by the host countries. The immediate crisis is the result of a shortfall on the budgeted income from television and sponsorship, itself arguably the consequence of too much calculated talking down of English cricket (including some from the ECB) and some bad publicity for the game generally last year.

Clubs staging World Cup games have been asked by the centre to produce extra money for the right to hold matches despite an apparently final agreement on terms last season. Warwickshire calculate that the club's estimated profit of UKP 114,000 will thereby be turned into a loss of £165,000. Lancashire's chief executive, Jim Cumbes, says bluntly that the club's overdraft has reached its limit and that no more can be paid over.

His Surrey counterpart, Paul Sheldon, reflecting a general disaffection with the board's senior officials, said yesterday: ``It was the arbitrary way in which we were suddenly asked at Christmas to hand over tens of thousands more of our potential World Cup income that's so disturbing. You can't run a business properly if you're expected to pay out extra in the middle of a financial year.''

The World Cup dispute is probably relatively easily sorted out; that over staging arrangements in future will take longer, though with nothing agreed for the Tests this season time is short. There has been a long-running dispute between Test match grounds and the rest of the counties over the greater share which the former take from the central pool from the television and sponsorship deals without which all the clubs would be bankrupt.

Statesmanship is needed to settle this perennial sore. The small clubs believe that, despite their vastly greater overheads, the Test grounds can attract more members because of the perks of cheaper tickets for Tests and internationals, and that they already have extra allowances for the refurbishment of their facilities in the form of the profits generated by hospitality and the lion's share of perimeter advertising income.

Greater spending power is one apparent consequence which riles less well endowed county clubs. One official alleged that Brian Lara's package to return to Warwickshire last year amounted to some UKP 220,000 all in. ``We couldn't have dreamt of offering that sort of package and the only county which tried to compete, Sussex, made a whacking great loss [UKP 193,000] last year,'' he said.

Another county, Leicestershire, have called for a salary cap similar to the one just agreed for rugby union. This is not the best time for the centre to impose specific percentages of their distributed money for salaries, youth development and ground refurbishment (for spectator and playing facilities) but in the long term it is the only equitable answer.

A standard rate of 12.5 per cent of the face value of Test and international tickets sold in advance (and five per cent of tickets to MCC for cup finals at Lord's) was the main part of what the Test grounds received back from the board until three years ago, but that has been progressively reduced to 7.5 per cent and the TMG consortium are anxious to push the figure back up on the condition that the income thereby received is spent on necessary ground improvements. All grounds also keep hospitality and perimeter advertising income. The latter, however, will produce nothing from the World Cup because the main tournament sponsors have paid for all the space.

The overall profit from the rest of the gate receipts and from television, sponsorship and part of the perimeter advertising has always been evenly distributed between the 18 first-class counties. Threats have been made by the board and by the consortium to stage international matches on smaller county grounds but the issues at stake are too important to both sides for a compromise not to be agreed. It is estimated that the ECB - and therefore the counties would lose some UKP 9 million in an average season if overall attendance were to be reduced by 80,000, as it would be if matches were played instead at the next largest county grounds.