Ticket sales have been excellent at other venues for the NatWest Series tournament, but only 9,000 spectators turned up at Headingley, a ground which holds 15,000.

The game was rain-affected. however, and had to be reduced to 32 overs per side, with England winning by three wickets.

"It is important to us that all our venues sell out or get as close to that position as possible.

"Apart from the revenue aspect, the players prefer to play in front of full houses - and a big crowd makes for a much better spectator experience," said ECB director of corporate affairs John Read told The Guardian newspaper.

"Overall the NatWest series has been a great success. We budgeted for takings of �4million and we're heading for a figure of �4.2m, with a total attendance of about 180,000.

"In nine of the matches we have had a sell-out or a virtual sell-out, and that includes those games coming up at Edgbaston and Bristol between India and Sri Lanka.

In view of the fact that we've been crowded out by the World Cup and, more recently, by Wimbledon to a certain extent, and bearing in mind that the weather has been frankly awful, it has been a very good effort."

Headingley will also stage the third Test between England and India, which starts on 22 August, and Yorkshire are hoping to recruit Indian batting star Sachin Tendulkar to help promote the game.

Tendulkar was Yorkshire's first overseas player in 1992 and chief executive Chris Hassell plans to talk to him in the near future about a role in the Test match build-up.

"The match is still six weeks away and I don't think it would be appropriate to talk about sales or targets at this stage," said Hassell.