Yorkshire hoping to impress in hosting England

The club are determined to make a favourable impression on their only day of international cricket this summer, with Yorkshire not having a Test match this time under terms of their staging agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

With increasing numbers of counties vying to host international cricket, Yorkshire cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

There are only a paucity of games to go around and a plethora of venues fighting to stage them, Hampshire’s Rose Bowl the latest to join the bandwagon when it held the final Test against Sri Lanka last month.

“We’re very keen to maintain Headingley’s status as one of the world’s leading grounds and it takes a double act to achieve that,” said Yorkshire’s sales director Richard Kaye.

“First, it’s down to us to agree with the ECB to bring these top matches to Yorkshire; then, it’s down to the people of Yorkshire to get behind the England team and keep turning out in big numbers.

“From our point of view, it’s important we deliver another exceptional customer experience during this one-day international and we’re extremely confident of doing that.

“Hopefully, everybody will have a great day out in the same way they did with the England-Pakistan one-day international at Headingley last September, and we’re determined to put on a memorable show.”

Today’s match is a 16,200 sell-out and worth just over £1m to the cash-strapped club.

Yorkshire are some £18m in debt and have been forced to take a number of tough financial decisions of late, including laying-off several office staff and choosing not to recruit any overseas players.

“To achieve a sell-out situation is a great effort from our point of view,” added Kaye.

“It’s down to a combination of some tremendous hard work by the club staff, a superb reaction to England’s success during the Ashes series and, of course, the fact it’s our only day of international cricket at Headingley this summer. Ten per cent of that capacity is corporate hospitality, which is also a sell-out, and we’re very pleased with the way things have gone.”

Tickets today go on sale for next year’s Headingley Test between England and South Africa. The venue will stage the second match of the series between August 2-6.