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The world Cup scorers have been asked to give their services free for the privilege of playing a part in the tournament. One scorer called it a ``kick in the teeth'' but the organisers' brainwave will doubtless save a bob or two.

The 'notchers' are to receive the same daily expense allowance as the match officials and players, and they will stay in the same good quality hotels, but there is no fee.

According to the event manager Michael Browning, working in this grand tournament is sufficient reward in itself. The regular professional county scorers are so enamoured by the thought that only three out of 18 have agreed to give up their county salaries. One of the three, Jack Foley of Kent, makes his amateur debut for England at Lord's today against Sri Lanka, who have been allocated Brian Hewes, Nottinghamshire's second-team scorer.

The other two 'first-teamers' are Vic Isaacs, of Hampshire, who is with Kenya, and Keith Booth, of Surrey, who has Pakistan. Booth is hoping to complete a World Cup double, having scored in the women's final at Lord's six years ago.

A World Cup official said: ``For most of the scorers, it is a desirable working holiday. Nobody is being dragooned into this.'' Gentlemen scoring for the players at Lord's - so reminiscent of a long-gone era.

The first batsman to emulate Albert Trott's 1899 feat of hitting a ball over the pavilion at Lord's will receive a reward of £10,000.

Trott, a Middlesex all-rounder, made this big hit playing for the MCC, launching a drive off his compatriot Monty Noble, a bowler of off-cutters for the touring Australians. In all this time, no one has achieved anything similar, Brian Lara being the most recent batsman to have gone close and that was five years ago.

Cricket Lore magazine has bravely raised the reward from £2,500 for the six-hit's centenary season. An even more testing target would be the new £5.2 million media centre at the Nursery End.

Golden ducks will have their use during the World Cup as a result of the NatWest Bank sponsoring the Primary Club, a new partnership announced at the eve-of-competition dinner in London last night.

NatWest, who have pumped £8 million into cricket already this year, have agreed to donate £100 for every first-baller in the competition and £20 each time it happens in any form of county cricket. The Primary Club, out of the public eye since Brian Johnston's death, supports charities for the blind and partially sighted.

Channel Five's late-night sports programme Live and Dangerous recommended The Daily Telegraph Cricket World Cup 1999 (author: Modesty Forbids) as the tournament's best book. Co-presenter Mark Webster said the colourful 80-pager had been well put together and he referred to it affectionately as ``the little devil''. No book has ever been called that before . . .

World Cup question: Who are the only two players competing in the tournament to have played in the previous England-hosted tournament in 1983?

Clue: They are both playing at Lord's today.

Answer: Arjuna Ranatunga and Graeme Hick (a substitute fielder for Zimbabwe in 1983).