YORKSHIRE County Cricket Club's new chief executive Stuart Regan can't wait to get stuck into the challenge which lies ahead of him.

He revealed that details of a new steering committee, which aims to raise £3million over the next 15 years from a ground appeal, were being made available to members at the club's annual meeting which was taking place today.

"The committee will involve people from inside and outside the club and each person will have a different area of responsibility," said Regan.

"We see Headingley's Test match status as being really important to the Yorkshire economy. It is a tourist attraction which the people of Yorkshire value and we need to make sure that we keep it for ever."

The committee, chaired by retiring club chairman Robin Smith is appealing to local industry and business to support Yorkshire financially, one of the ways being through interest-free loans.

Regan, recruited from the Football League Championship, said: "It seems a long time since I accepted the job but I have been working my notice and I was glad to be given the early release date which has allowed me to take up my post ahead of the new season.

"I met director of cricket David Byas and the playing staff when they spent a few days at Kettlewell a couple of weeks' ago. We all had a good chat and I got the feeling of a real air of optimism within the club.

"I want to maintain that optimism both on the pitch and behind the scenes with the commercial operation. Things are generally looking good at the moment with new main sponsors in Bradford and Bingley, owning our own ground for the first time and promotion to the first division of the Championship.

"My aim is to put in place ways of making some money quickly and I will be meeting the office staff at Headingley today to outline my plans and gain their support."

Regan said one of the things he wanted was to see all tickets sold for Yorkshire's home Twenty-20 matches this season. "I cannot understand why we have not yet got full stadiums for these family orientated games of cricket," he added.

"We will be announcing initiatives to get the kids to come to Headingley and we can learn from football how to optimise our earnings from matches."

Regan said he would be spending time looking at the complex deal with Leeds CFAC over the purchase of Headingley and finding out just who was allowed to do what as well as consulting with various bodies about the next phase of the ground's redevelopment.

Updated: 08:46 Saturday, March 25, 2006