Shane Warne takes a closer look

Furthermore, there would be considerable commercial benefits.

All matches could be played towards the centre of the square, a requirement for television coverage. And outside the cricket season, boards could be laid down and the ground used to stage concerts and other events.

Lancashire took a huge, though ultimately successful, gamble last year when a Robbie Williams concert was held on the main playing surface in July.

Drop-in pitches, pioneered during the days of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, have been used for Test matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Auckland's Jade Stadium, venues also used for Aussie rules football and rugby union.

Last year, Australian Bill Casimati, whose company, Strath Air, has supplied the pitches in Melbourne and Auckland, lectured English groundsmen at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

And after a fact-finding trip to Australia and New Zealand by MCC's Head of Cricket, Tony Dodemaide, and Head Groundsman Mick Hunt, it was decided that two portable pitches would be cultivated in a Melbourne greenhouse and installed in the Nursery Ground at Lord's at a cost of �60,000.

Lord's is the traditional home of cricket

If successful, three more pitches will be ordered and eventually moved to the main playing area of the ground.

"The MCG doesn't even have a square any more, just a concrete tub in the middle of the ground where six portable pitches are dropped in at the start of the season. All six play perfectly," said former Australian seam bowler Dodemaide.

"At Lord's we obviously don't have an issue of protecting the playing area from another sport.

"But we would be able to rationalise seating whereby sightscreens would never have to be moved to accommodate spectators, and television cameras would have a permanent position at either end of the ground.

"And because of the preparation needed, there is a seven to ten-day block-off before Test matches and one-day finals. It would therefore enable us to fit in more cricket."

To English groundsmen, there would also be the advantage of preparing pitches in warmer climes.

Could Robbie swing at Lord's one day?

Hunt complained last year that the topseed he had applied the previous September had not germinated before it was washed away during the sodden spring months.

The ECB's pitches consultant, Chris Wood, conceded that there are considerable obstacles to be overcome if portable pitches are to be used widely in England, but that any county wanting to convert its square would be given every assistance.

One such county could be Glamorgan who struggle to get much life into their pitches at Sophia Gardens.

"We're open-minded," said Glamorgan secretary Mike Fatkin.

"Our problem here is that the square is a bit tired. But if it's seen as a success elsewhere then certainly we would consider it.

"The MCC have obviously been looking into it closely and if they can overcome the obstacles of getting 72-tonne slabs of earth into a ground like Lord's then it shouldn't be a problem for the rest of us."