Celebrating visit of cricket's stars

The Yorkshire Cricket Mela, a festival of cricket and culture celebrating the county's staging of a Pakistan match, began last week and runs until the conclusion of the Test match next Sunday.

Organised by Yorkshire County Cricket Club in conjunction with local councils and Welcome to Yorkshire, events have been taking place throughout the county, encompassing everything from cricket in a car park to an official ceremony to welcome the Pakistan team.

The Mela follows on from the success of last year's Ashes in Leeds Festival, but the events are being held over a wider area as the club attempt to tap into the county's broad Pakistani community.

"Hosting the Test match presents us with an opportunity to make Pakistan feel that Headingley is a real home from home for them," explained Yorkshire's chief executive Stewart Regan, who successfully lobbied for Headingley to stage the neutral Test match.

"There is a lot of support for Pakistan in Bradford, parts of Keighley, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds itself, not to mention areas of Lancashire, Manchester, up into Scotland, and areas of Birmingham. We know that there is a lot of interest so we are promoting the Test match in a number of different ways, one of those being the Yorkshire Cricket Mela.

"We're trying to engage the Pakistan community in particular but cricket lovers from all walks of life. It's important for the region that we try and make it a success."

Pakistan's second Test against Australia starts on Wednesday and tickets are still available.

Buy four tickets and get a fifth free;

Junior Groups of more than eight are 8 each per junior ticket with one free adult ticket for every eight juniors.

Various multi-day season tickets – see the club website www.yorkshireccc.com for further details