Yorkshire County Cricket Club stand to make at least £400,000 from this summer's international cricket at Headingley as a result of a two-year staging agreement they are poised to sign with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Under the deal, Yorkshire will each year pay the ECB £250,000 for staging a Test match and £100,000 for hosting a one-day international.

The ECB will then take the first £50,000 profit and the remaining profit will be shared equally by the two parties.

England play Zimbabwe in a NatWest Series match at Headingley on July 1 and the fourth Test between England and South Africa will be played there from August 21-25.

Yorkshire will, therefore, be stumping up a total of £350,000 for this year's Test match and the one-day international but the Test is expected to gross £1.2million.

In addition, Yorkshire will continue to receive 12 per cent commission from the ECB on advance ticket sales.

"It is a very good deal for Yorkshire and we are delighted with it," said Yorkshire chief executive Colin Graves.

"The agreement is only for two years at our request because we will then be in a much better position to see how our ground development is progressing and probably ready to negotiate a fresh deal over a longer period.

"Every Test ground now negotiate their own deal with the ECB and we are very pleased with what we have got."

Updated: 12:40 Wednesday, January 08, 2003