Headingley could lose next summer's Test match between England and Pakistan for which thousands of tickets have already been sold if Leeds City Council do not confirm a £9million loan to help Yorkshire buy the ground.

That was the stark warning given by Yorkshire chairman Robin Smith to about 150 of the county's members who attended a meeting at Headingley to hear more details about the club's plan to purchase the freehold of the ground and its income streams before the end of the year.

Yorkshire have organised an extraordinary general meeting on Christmas Eve to gain approval for the £12m deal with their landlords - Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Company - but Leeds City Council have yet to ratify their proposal to provide Yorkshire with a low interest loan.

Although their executive board are likely to rubber-stamp the recommendation next week, Yorkshire members voiced concern over the future and one of them, Adam Brown, wanted to know what the long-term prognosis was if they were unable to buy the ground.

Smith said that Yorkshire had just crawled under the wire to secure a 15-year agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board for the staging of Test matches at Headingley.

The ECB had agreed to it in order to give Yorkshire that amount of time to pay back their loans but it was conditional on Yorkshire owning the ground by December 31.

"If there is no deal by then, the staging agreement will be over and on January 1 we will have to get in touch with Lord's to try to obtain a new one over a shorter period but they are not forced to give it and they could even withdraw the Pakistan Test," said Smith.

"There is certainly that possibility and I would not bet by money on it not happening.

"I would have to satisfy them on a three-year-staging agreement but now we have in our clutches a 15-year deal which would make Headingley a ground of such consequence that its future would be beyond question.

"We want to preserve the ground as a top venue for world cricket but it is a most unattractive prospect without a deal."

Asked about the club's current financial situation, finance director Brian Bouttell said they would virtually break even in 2005 on the cricket side of their operations but banking and depreciation meant they would declare an overall deficit of about £1m.

"The major reason for this is because Headingley did not stage an Ashes Test this year," said Bouttell. "If we had had one, we would have been fairly close to breaking even."

Bouttell assured members that the deal to buy Headingley was affordable.

"We have worked out detailed budgets and cash flows from now until 2020 and our forecasts have been trawled over by accountants, bankers, Leeds City Council and others," said Bouttell.

"The deal takes up most of our income and was intended to but all the income streams will be carefully monitored. I have spoken to our chief accountant David Ryder and from January 1 he will get rid of his routine work and will be responsible for monitoring budgets and cashflow.

"He will monitor the situation on a daily basis and will be reporting regularly to the chief executive."

Yorkshire have appointed but not yet named a new full time chief executive to take over from Colin Graves and Smith said he expected an announcement to be made between Christmas and the New Year if the deal to buy Headingley went through.

Updated: 11:42 Thursday, December 08, 2005