The club's plan to demolish Headingley's historic Wintershed and replace it with a five-storey landmark building has been on the drawing board for 18 months.

But the project, seen as vital if Yorkshire is to retain Test cricket status, cleared a major hurdle yesterday when it received near-unanimous support from Leeds City Council's plans panel.

The pavilion, to be shared with Leeds Metropolitan University, will be much larger than the Wintershed and will include a new media centre, hospitality facilities and teaching rooms.

Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan said work could begin once a current project to improve drainage at Headingley had been completed.

He added: "It's fantastic news for the club. We've been working on this for the best part of 18 months and we've put in hours and hours of work to get this result.

"This will be a landmark building which will be viewed by 500 million people around the world and it's something that I think will benefit the people of Leeds and the county of Yorkshire."

The council had received 23 letters of objection to the project, raising concerns about the pavilion's height, its hospitality facilities, the number of students it will bring to the area and the impact it will have on parking.

One concerned Headingley resident, Dale Ellis, told the panel the venture was "about bums on seats, not people", but councillors voted to delegate final approval of the scheme to the council's chief planning officer, provided the club agrees to meet a number of specified conditions.

Panel chairman Colin Campbell, Liberal Democrat member for Otley and Yeadon, said: "This (application) is about a world-class building because this will be seen on TV screens throughout the cricketing world.

"I think it's about sending the message that Leeds is not a provincial town in the north of England, it's a world-class city that can generate world-class design."