A CRICKET ground created in inner city Bradford is to expand its facilities if planning permission is granted for a £25,000 building to house a tea room and store.

Work began on the cricket pitch at Gilpin Street, Barkerend, at the back of the Karmand Community Centre, ready for the 2012 season and it now provides a home ground to Karmand Cricket Club which plays there on a Sunday.

A pavilion has been added which provides changing room space and a small kitchenette, but now bosses are hoping their plans to create somewhere to sit down for the traditional mid-match cricket tea, and somewhere to store the lawnmowers and ground-keeping machinery, will put the finishing touches to their ground.

Nasa Hussain, who manages the ground, said: "We have worked in stages to build the cricket ground and the only thing we are lacking is a tea room and a storage area for our machines. We have already raised the funds and have now submitted a planning application.

"This is our third season playing cricket here, and we hire the ground out to two other teams on a Saturday, as well as the Karmand Cricket Club playing here on a Sunday.

"The beauty of it is they are all local people - the facility is of great benefit to the local community, which is what it was made for."

He added that they had been using a portable building to serve the teas, but that had been set fire to, so a more permanent and secure solution was required.

"We want to build a top facility here that is sustainable with the aim of getting into the Bradford League and proving to people that inner city Bradford has some damn good cricketers," he said.

The long-awaited sports facility was delayed for a number of years because of funding setbacks. Grant funding for a £3m cricket academy scheme was pulled by Bradford Council in 2006 after it had been one of the major schemes proposed by regeneration company Regen 2000. Council finance bosses said it did not meet the criteria.

Funding for the cricket ground and its facilities has come from a variety of sources, including Bradford Council, Sport England, and the Council's ward investment fund, as well as thousands raised by the community centre itself.