LEEDS, Dec 24: Headingley, the home of Yorkshire cricket, will continue to stage Test matches after Leeds City Council agreed on Friday to help the county buy the ground.

The club have secured a nine million pounds loan from the council which will now allow them to complete their agreed 12m pound purchase of the ground from the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company.

Yorkshire had been granted a 15-year international staging agreement by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on the condition they owned their own ground by the end of 2005.

The council met this morning to give the go-ahead to the loan, which must be repaid over 15 years.

It means that, for the first time, in their 142-year history, Yorkshire own their own ground.

The county aim to raise the additional three million pounds from a public appeal.

Friday’s announcement appeared to bring to an end a lengthy process which at one stage saw Yorkshire contemplate moving to a new, purpose-built, ground at Wakefield, near Leeds, only to have the plan collapse when the Headingley owners pointed out they would be in breach of their lease.—AFP