Although Craig White misses the Headingley Test match tomorrow because of a side strain, Yorkshire are hoping to play him in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy Final on August 31 purely as a batsman.

"The plan is to pick Craig for the Championship match against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl next week and let him have a 'hit' to get him ready for final with Somerset," said Yorkshire coach Wayne Clark.

The presence of White, pictured above featuring in a benefit golf day for his testimonial at York Golf Club this week, in the final will be a big boost for Yorkshire because he is their most destructive batsman and he played one of the greatest one-day innings of all time in the semi-final against Surrey when he blasted an unbeaten century in an unbroken 167 opening stand with Matthew Wood.

Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard are both free to play in the final and Yorkshire would now seem to be favourites to lift the Trophy because little seems to be going right for Somerset at the moment.

Before then, of course, they have to apply their minds to the match with Hampshire which starts on Tuesday and a win in this game is essential if the County Champions are to stand any chance of avoiding the drop into the Second Division.

Meanwhile, four of Yorkshire and England's greatest former players were at Headingley today on the eve of the third Test against India.

Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Ray Illingworth and Geoff Boycott were together performing the official opening of the new East Stand development which includes 36 executive boxes named after famous Yorkshire players.

A week tomorrow, Yorkshire are holding their extraordinary general meeting at Headingley when they hope to bring in a rule change which will allow the club's borrowing powers to be increased from £5m to £10m in order to pay for the spiralling costs of the ground's redevelopment.

The rule change resolution requires a two-thirds majority and Yorkshire have even warned that if it does not go through the club could be faced with bankruptcy.

England and India were today trying to keep their minds on the job of preparing for the third Test at Headingley as the row over ICC Champions Trophy contracts conflicting with players' personal deals continued to rage.

Updated: 12:12 Wednesday, August 21, 2002