IT would be a ‘disaster’ if Lancashire County Cricket Club wasn’t able to host the Ashes series in 2013.

That’s according to the club’s chief executive Jim Cumbes.

In an exclusive interview this week, Mr Cumbes spoke of his fears for the future of international cricket in the north west should the controversial multi-million pound Tesco deal, which will fund improvements at the club, be rejected or delayed.

He told Messenger should that happen, he thought it was likely the English Cricket Board (ECB) would look elsewhere for a ground already boasting the required standards and where proper commitment to host international cricket existed.

“The biggest fear is the application gets turned down and, of course, that’s in the hands of the planning committee and for them to decide,” he said.

“The other one is if they do decide it’s acceptable, but there’s a call in by Government planning inspectors as that will delays us.

“If it goes to the Secretary of State that would probably add eight, nine, maybe 12 months to the scheme, which means our ambitions to get the Ashes in 2013 will struggle because we won’t be ready in time.

“We’ve been given two test matches in 2014 and 2016 on the condition we have permission to upgrade the ground. If we don’t, then we lose our status as a test match ground.

“It could be got back but only if we do what we’re doing and we can’t afford to do it without the Tesco cross subsidy. Without Tesco we don’t have a cricket ground. That’s putting it bluntly.”

Should a ‘call-in’ happen, which is possible because of the scale of Tesco’s store, Mr Cumbes said international cricket in the north west looked grim.

“It wouldn’t be far short of a disaster,” he said.

“The alarm bells would ring at Lord’s and they’d say ‘they don’t really want test cricket, why are we taking it there?’ “That’s my fear anyway, and then they say ‘we’ll send the Ashes to Cardiff, they did a good job last time’.

“And of course there are more test match grounds as well and that’s a problem for us, as it’ll mean other grounds getting a foot hold.

“We’ve been here 150 years and in that time we’ve staged test matches almost every year. We’ve missed just three in all those years.

“We lost it because we were told by the ECB in no uncertain terms that the ground didn’t measure up to international cricket standards.

“We are the only venue in the north west who can, so if we lose that then it’s the end of cricket in this region. This isn’t just about Lancashire County Cricket Club.

“We could, if we’d wanted, survived as a county cricket club and just play county cricket, and we’d survive because of our other businesses, but that wasn’t really fair to the north west because people come from all over.”