WORCESTERSHIRE say they have already taken steps to help them cope with the England and Wales Cricket Board's decision to cut £4million from their 2003 budget.

ECB chief executive Tim Lamb hinted the move was a result of repercussions from England's boycott of their World Cup match in Zimbabwe earlier this year.

The International Cricket Council subsequently withheld £2.3million of World Cup money from English cricket -- and it is that shortfall which appears to have forced the ECB to take action.

It emerged after yesterday's meeting of the First Class Forum that each of England's 18 professional counties are likely to lose £30,000 of their annual funding this year.

Worcestershire's chief executive Mark Newton said today: "The outcome from the First Class Forum meeting was much as expected.

"The withholding of monies from the World Cup distribution by the ICC will take some time to sort out so the game has been prudent in taking the necessary actions at an early stage.

"Worcestershire will receive £30,000 less than expected this year from its distribution. While this is a significant amount of money, we were very prudent when preparing our budgets and allowed for this possibility, so it will not have any major impact."

Lamb made it clear on several occasions before England pulled out of their Pool A match in Harare on February 13 for safety reasons that a boycott would be likely to cost English cricket dear.

Fears that Zimbabwe would take the tit-for-tat measure of cancelling their tour of England this summer appear to have been allayed.

But following the announcement that a substantial cut will have to be made to a budget which caters for grass-roots cricket up to the allocation of central contracts, Lamb said: "It is regrettable that these cost savings need to be found, but they are part of the financial fall-out from the 2003 World Cup. It is only right and proper that all parts of the game should bear the pain.

"The ECB is committed to managing cricket on a thoroughly professional and modern basis, and we need to balance our books."