Yorkshire CCC keen to host The Hundred final

The club was lagging behind the Jones’s in terms of facilities and well down the pecking order in terms of aesthetics.

Throw in a swanky new main stand, however, along with sundry improvements, and Yorkshire’s Emerald Headingley headquarters has been dramatically transformed.

It is why the club’s chief executive Mark Arthur believes it would be a good place to hold the final of The Hundred, with that showpiece fixture set to move around the country from 2021.

Lord’s – the game’s headquarters – will stage the inaugural final of the men’s edition on Saturday, August 15 this year, while Hove will host the women’s equivalent at the end of the five-week tournament that starts in July.

Beyond that, however, there is a desire among the England and Wales Cricket Board to take the final around the country in the cricketing equivalent of a travelling roadshow.

For counties like Yorkshire, who are not guaranteed Test cricket each year despite being one of the main hosting venues, it is an opportunity for extra funds/kudos in an era in which there are more international venues than Test matches available.

That Yorkshire can even seriously entertain the notion of staging the final of The Hundred is testament to the work that Arthur and the club’s staff have done in recent times, which has helped drag Headingley kicking and screaming into the 21st-century.

“I’d like to think that we’re now in a different league in terms of facilities and in terms of Emerald Headingley’s reputation,” said Arthur, with Yorkshire set to further boost their standing at the ECB by doubling the size of the dressing room areas.

“If we still had the old Football Stand, for example, I don’t think that anybody would have taken us seriously if we were pitching to host a major final.

“But I think that, with the job that we did both in the cricket World Cup and the Ashes last year and with our new Emerald Stand gaining widespread acclaim, we’re well placed in terms of the aspiration of hosting a domestic final.

“In addition, the quality of pitches that (groundsman) Andy Fogarty and his team produce at Emerald Headingley are consistently superb and second to none.”

Yorkshire are well-placed not only in terms of facilities, ambience and general atmosphere, with the mood on the final day of last year’s Ashes Test particularly electric, but also well-placed geographically perhaps.

With Nottinghamshire’s Trent Bridge ground home to the One-Day Cup final for the next few years, and with Warwickshire’s Edgbaston base the home of T20 Finals Day, it may be no bad thing to be based a bit further north - and further away from London - in terms of bidding to stage such a major event.

“My personal view is that if you’re going to be truly inclusive, then you have to take major events outside of London and the Midlands as well,” said Arthur.

“We’ve never staged a major final in the north, so hopefully that will work in our favour and be a selling point for us in terms of The Hundred.

“We don’t know what the international schedule is going to be going forward; we don’t know what cricket is going to look like beyond 2024.

“So anything that we can do to raise the profile of cricket and Leeds itself has to be beneficial.”

Arthur cannot put a figure on what The Hundred final would be worth to Yorkshire financially.

However, it would be a bumper pay day for a ground that is one of the eight hosting venues for the new tournament, with the Northern Superchargers based at Headingley.

“I don’t know how much it would be worth financially because we haven’t got into the realms of that at this stage,” he said.

“What I do know is that we would certainly love to host it and that it would certainly help our financial situation.

“If we had the opportunity to showcase The Hundred here and, at the same time, to fill our ground, there’s obviously going to be huge benefits to the club, to the stadium and, indeed, to the city of Leeds itself.

“We know that the staging of major events at Emerald Headingley is going to boost the coffers for the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and that The Hundred final is something we would love to host as soon as possible.”