DURHAM County Cricket Club plan to build a luxury hotel at their Riverside ground to help attract international matches.

Following two one-day internationals this summer, the Chester-le-Street based club are planning to join the big hitters of the cricket world on a more permanent basis.

They hope that a top-class hotel at the Riverside would attract test matches and help it compete with Lords, Headingley, Trent Bridge and Old Trafford. Club bosses have circulated glossy brochures to prospective developers and hotel firms.

David Harker, Durham's chief executive, said: "We cannot sit still and hope we are granted test match cricket in the future. We are looking to enter the international arena, and to do that we need money - and a way to get that could be to develop the site.

"We have already had international matches here. The more financially robust we are, the bigger the chance we have of getting more.

"We hope to receive some interest from potential developers. If this materialises - and any ideas are to the benefit of the club - then we might make a planning application."

The existing Riverside ground was completed in 1995, three years after it was accepted into the county championship.

The 6,000-capacity stadium has been in the spotlight twice this year, once as the final stumbling block to Who Wants to be a Millionaire contestant Peter Lee's bid to bag a million.

Then, it hosted its first international match in the summer, when England beat the West Indies.