Stewart Regan urging the Yorkshire press to get behind their local county side

Sunday, 8th June 2008

Stewart Regan - Headingley Carnegie has world class future

In last Monday's Yorkshire Post, cricket writer Chris Waters posed the question, "Can international cricket thrive for generations to come at a ground which appears something of an anachronism in the modern world?"

He then went on to say that perhaps the long-term future of Headingley Carnegie is not as an international venue.

In a letter to The Yorkshire Post Stewart Regan, Yorkshire's chief executive, takes up the challenge.

Mr Waters rightly pays tribute to Colin Graves and the previous Board of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for having the foresight and determination to purchase the cricket ground with the assistance of Leeds City Council. This secured a 15 year staging agreement in December 2005 and since then the club have prepared a ground development plan which is designed to retain international cricket at Headingley Carnegie for future generations of cricket supporters to enjoy.

On April 18 this year, the club, supported by its partner, Leeds Met University, submitted a planning application to Leeds City Council for the construction of The Carnegie Pavilion a £20m development at the Kirkstall Lane end of the ground. If planning permission is granted the building will not only be a high quality teaching facility for the university, but it will offer a state of the art media centre, world-class players' facilities and premium hospitality arrangements which will be the envy of cricket grounds the world over. The project has been fully supported by Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency, to the tune of £4m. They recognise the economic impact of Test Cricket in this county, with every Test Match being worth some £3.5m in economic spend.

The Club have also secured a £600,000 grant from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to improve the pitch with new drainage and irrigation to reduce the amount of cricket lost to rain. This work will start in September this year. The new pitch will be ready in 2009, in time for us to host the fourth Ashes Test, the only ground north of Edgbaston to do so. We are also looking to replace the existing scoreboard with a modern video-replay screen which will improve the customer experience.

All of these improvements have been given the ECB's blessing and are designed to ensure that we deliver one of the best cricket grounds in the country to host international cricket for many years to come.

With reference to our location and parking, I would say that this has not hampered Lords, Trent Bridge or The Brit Oval – all of whom find themselves in dense, residential and built-up areas and all of whom are winning bids to stage major matches. Indeed, through our excellent partnerships with Leeds Rugby, Leeds City Council and Leeds Metropolitan University we can offer more parking spaces than any other international cricket ground in the country through a combination of local and park and ride car parks.

We are however, keen to reduce the number of cars coming into Headingley and we have put in place a number of initiatives with bus and rail operators to improve understanding of services available and encourage greater take-up.

Over the past six years, the Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground has changed beyond all recognition with improved members' facilities and seating. The board of directors are determined to drive forward with their vision to create a world-class, international cricket venue.
This vision is shared and supported by both Leeds Met and Yorkshire Forward and has certainly been encouraged by the ECB.

I can assure Mr Waters that Headingley Carnegie will certainly not be left behind and, yes, international cricket can survive for generations to come.

If the planners give the go-ahead then The Carnegie Pavilion will be open in 2010 and will become the most viewed building in Yorkshire, seen regularly by over 500 million TV viewers across the world.

Let's get behind our own spiritual home of Yorkshire and England cricket and promote it positively rather than seeking to knock it.