THE England and Wales Cricket Board may come down hard on Yorkshire if the Headingley Test lasts only two days - as happened last year when wickets crashed like ninepins and the West Indies were toppled by an innings and 39 runs.

Headingley has a bad reputation for poor pitches but Yorkshire statistician Roy Wilkinson has proved that over the past ten Test matches on each of the six Test grounds, it comes out better than either Lord's or The Oval in terms of runs per wicket.

The ten most recent Tests at Headingley have produced 9,911 runs and 312 wickets, making for an average of 31.76 runs for each wicket which falls.

The average is 30 runs per wicket at The Oval and only 26.80 at Lord's which comes bottom of the list.

Edgbaston (30.70) is also lower than Headingley but a higher average is obtained at Old Trafford (37.23) and Trent Bridge (34.63).

"Yorkshire have often been accused of producing poor pitches for Test matches at Headingley, the inference being that batting has been difficult and bowlers have been in the ascendancy," said Wilkinson.

"But it will be seen from my research that contrary to popular and largely southern-based opinion, Headingley comes out rather well.

"If there is any move to get an improvement in pitches prepared for Tests, perhaps the ECB should start looking nearer their own offices."

Wilkinson added that his figures showed that Headingley was only 0.03 of a run per wicket less than the overall average and that the three most northerly grounds had the highest average of runs per wicket.

Trent Bridge was the only ground where England had a higher average of runs per wicket (+1.66) than their opponents.

Headingley's new West Stand was being officially opened today by club president Robin Smith, while the new Sir Leonard Hutton Gates, which sparked a controversy over their design, are being officially opened by Sir Len's widow, Dorothy.

Yorkshire have chosen 36 prominent figures from the county's history to be portrayed on flags that will decorate the new stand.

The flags represent the 18 first class counties and the remaining 18 all the Test-playing countries and other organisations, including leeds city Council, which helped finance Headingley's redevelopment.

Fred Trueman is on Yorkshire's banner, while the England slot goes to Sir Len Hutton.

The players portrayed on the county flags are: Phil Sharpe, Maryn Moxon, Bill Bowes, John Hampshire, Schofield Haigh, Roy Kilner, Brian Sellers, Phil Carrick, Ray Illingworth, David Bairstow, Geoff Boycott, Jimmy Binks, Brian Close, Vic Wilson, Doug Paggett, Chris Old, Don Wilson and Fred Trueman.

The other 18 players are: Sir Leonard Hutton, Darren Lehmann, Willie Watson, Maurice leyland, Hedley Verity, Sachin Tendulkar, Johnny Wardle, George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes, Dickie Bird, Norman Yardley, Lord Hawke, Craig White, Michael Vaughan, Darren Gough, Bob Appleyard, Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe.

Updated: 12:44 Wednesday, August 15, 2001