Headingley will lose its place as one of the major cricket grounds of the world "unless delicate talks between Yorkshire and Leeds City Council can resolve a funding row that threatens the ground’s international status," according to Nick Hoult of the London TELEGRAPH. Headingley has hosted Test cricket since 1899, but unless the club can finance the rebuilding of the stand at the Football End, "it will no longer meet modern requirements and will lose the four matches it is due to host in the 2019 World Cup." Headingley will also lose Test status from '20 (when its staging agreement with the England & Wales Cricket Board expires) and "will not be able to compete with other grounds to host a team in the new Twenty20 tournament unless the deadlock over ground improvements is solved before the end of this cricket season." The club has to find £17M ($21.2M) to "finance its half of the work on the stand which is shared with Leeds Rhinos rugby league club." Yorkshire had been awarded a £4M ($5M) grant from the city council and "were looking to borrow money for the rest of the project." However, the council offer "was withdrawn recently under political pressure." Yorkshire is "already saddled" with almost £25M ($31M) of debt, with most owed to a trust fund set up by ECB Chair Colin Graves, and Yorkshire Chair Steve Denison "ruled out financing the entire building work through new loans." Denison said, "It does look quite gloomy but nobody is giving up. We are going to keep going but it is hard work" (TELEGRAPH, 3/21).
