Yorkshire's £12million deal to buy Headingley will guarantee Test cricket on the ground for a longer period than any of the other provincial venues staging international matches.

The deal, announced yesterday, comes into force on January 1, provided Leeds City Council later this month rubberstamp plans to give Yorkshire a £9m loan and Yorkshire members then voice their approval at an extraordinary meeting of the club on Christmas Eve. Both conditions are confidently expected to be met.

Yorkshire have also called a members' meeting at Headingley for 6.30pm next Tuesday so that a full discussion on the proposals can take place before members vote either by proxy or on December 24.

The purchase of Headingley cricket ground freehold and its associated income streams from Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company, is a personal triumph for Yorkshire chief executive Colin Graves who told the Evening Press that it had been a long, hard road but worth the wait.

Time was rapidly running out for Yorkshire to buy the ground because a 15-year-agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board for the staging of international matches at Headingley from 2005 to 2019 was conditional upon Yorkshire owning it from 2006.

"Without that deal and the purchase of the ground, Test cricket at Headingley would not have continued for very long," said Graves.

"But now the future is very bright because we are the only provincial ground with a 15-year agreement. Only Surrey has a longer agreement and all other Test venues, apart from Yorkshire, are currently on five-year agreements with three years being the norm renewal period in future."

Yorkshire will pay Leeds CFAC the final £3m within the next 15 years and a Ground Appeal will be launched early next year. Talks with a potential benefactor over funding are currently taking place.

Once Yorkshire have bought Headingley, they will reveal the name of their new chief executive who is expected to take up his post early in the New Year when Graves will stand down but remain a member of the management board.

Yorkshire will own their own ground for the first time in their 142-year history and income from the catering, drinking and advertising streams, presently owned by Leeds CFAC, will bring in around £450,000 a year after payment of interest charges.

Yorkshire will enter into an agreement with Headingley Experience, which is part of Leeds CFAC, to provide catering services within the cricket ground for the next 15 years for a guaranteed annual payment to the club averaging £140,000.

The final phases of the redevelopment of Headingley - the shared south grandstand and a new pavilion and media centre on the site of the old winter shed at the Kirkstall Lane end - could be completed within the next five years.

It will provide an extra 3,000 seats, hoisting capacity to 20,000 - 5,000 above the ECB's minimum requirement for international matches.

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, December 01, 2005