Repayment relief for Yorkshire cricket club

The decision comes after reports on how a “deterioration” in finances was preventing the club paying back a £9m loan taken out to help buy its Headingley ground.

The club had applied for a variation to its previous agreement to repay the debt by 2020, and that deadline has now been extended to 2025 after senior councillors rubber-stamped the changes at a meeting of the decision-making executive board yesterday.

The interest payable under the new deal will remain at 4.5 per cent.

Yorkshire CCC borrowed the money in 2005 to help it buy the world-famous stadium and preserve test matches for Leeds.

Under the original terms, the money was supposed to be repaid by April 2020.

A report presented to councillors yesterday said the club was experiencing “cash flow difficulties” and warned the club’s finances were “highly dependent on hosting international cricket”.

“[The club’s] forecast cash flow is not sufficient to enable a full repayment in accordance with the current agreements,” it said. “Depending upon a number of events, there may be the potential for further and earlier repayment to be made.”

Yorkshire CCC chairman Colin Graves said before the meeting: “We have simply not made enough profit to be able to repay the loan by this date.”

The particulars of the revised deal were discussed in private but Leeds council leader Keith Wakefield acknowledged the club was a “very very important issue for the city of Leeds”.

“We all know the strategic importance of keeping the test cricket at Yorkshire and Headingley,” he said.

He added the council’s financial expert had negotiated a “really strong deal” for the authority.