MICHAEL Vaughan today celebrated being named one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year with a rare appearance for Yorkshire in their Frizzell Championship match against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.

It is the first time this season that England have allowed their top batsman to play for his county and the appearance of last year's heaviest scorer in Test cricket around the world was expected to draw in the crowds if the weather stays fine.

The forecast is not brilliant and heavy overnight rain put the scheduled start time in doubt.

England commitments permitted Vaughan only two Championship outings for Yorkshire last summer, the second of which was also against Hampshire at Headingley in May when he contributed 54 in a rain-hit encounter.

Later in the season, Yorkshire visited the new Rose Bowl ground for the first time and came away with a decisive seven wicket victory to set them up nicely for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy final at Lord's a couple of days later when they beat Somerset.

In today's game, Yorkshire were eager to add substantially to the maximum 22 points they took from the crushing of Northamptonshire at Headingley and they were able to draw comfort from knowing that they have never lost a Championship match on a Southampton ground in 23 visits dating back to 1895.

They were likely to find Hampshire a much tougher nut to crack than Northants, however, and their batting line-up was given additional strength by the debut appearance of Australian left-hander Simon Katich, who had a brief spell with Yorkshire last season when he deputised for Darren Lehmann for a couple of weeks in June.

Katich has been involved in Australia 'A''s recent series with South Africa 'A'.

Katich, who also had a successful spell with Durham, will want a better start to his Hampshire career than he managed with Yorkshire when he was run out off his very first ball in the National League game with Worcestershire.

Updated: 11:49 Wednesday, April 30, 2003