YORKSHIRE'S agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board for staging Test matches at Headingley will have to be renegotiated now that the county club's hopes of buying the ground have been dashed.

A 15-year agreement had been signed recently but was dependant on Yorkshire owning the ground and this will now lapse at the end of the year.

Yorkshire chairman Robin Smith said yesterday that there was no danger of not getting another agreement and that the future of Test cricket on the ground was not at risk.

They had been given a 15-year agreement because it provided them with the base to borrow money for the ground, but now that the circumstances had changed they would negotiate a shorter agreement, probably for five years.

Smith said that the breakdown of talks with their landlords Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company meant that the future development of the winter shed area of the ground and the grandstand would be put back, but he believed they could still do it one day, provided Leeds CFAC boss, Paul Caddick, agreed.

"Everybody is still with us and our two biggest funders, Leeds City Council and Sport England, are still here so we should never say never," said Smith.

Smith said that Yorkshire would be advertising for a new chief executive and they were looking for someone with financial and commercial expertise and experience.

Light rain continued well into the afternoon at Headingley yesterday and prevented any play on the first day of Yorkshire's first home Championship match against Somerset.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, April 21, 2005