YORKSHIRE, beset by problems on and off the field, are believed to be seeking a settlement deal with commercial director, Tony Panaro, who has not been seen at Headingley for the past fortnight.

The absence of the club's marketing boss was noted during the Roses match when he was first rumoured to be on holiday and then off sick.

Although Yorkshire have no official comment to make on the current situation, Panaro's future was discussed at a committee meeting yesterday.

Panaro joined Yorkshire last year when marketing director, Mark Newton, left to become chief executive of Worcestershire, and Panaro was responsible for the stocking of special merchandise to commemorate Yorkshire's winning of the Championship in September.

On another front, Yorkshire are pulling out all the stops to promote the third Test between England and India which begins at Headingley on August 22.

Although tickets have sold well for the Friday, there are still plenty of seats available on the other days and Yorkshire want to please the England and Wales Cricket Board by being able to draw capacity crowds to the match.

The ECB were openly critical that the crowd was only 9,000 for the England v Sri Lanka one-day match at Headingley last month and they will be monitoring closely attendances at the Test.

Yorkshire receive a staging fee of £450,000 from the ECB for the Test and with the club's share of the £10m redevelopment of Headingley to be paid back to the banks, with interest, it is essential that England continue to play at the venue and that this money keeps coming in.

There has even been talk of Yorkshire calling an extraordinary general meeting of the club over their finances and how they may raise more cash but at the moment this is only speculation.

Yorkshire's players were practising hard today for tomorrow's Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy semi-final clash with Surrey at Headingley.

This is without doubt their most important match of the season and if they win it and go on to the Lord's final it will help stifle a lot of the criticism which is building up among the fans as a result of the County Champions now being bottom of the table with little hope of avoiding relegation.

Although Yorkshire lost to Surrey in the Championship at Guildford last week, they have played very well in the C&G Trophy so far and their confidence will be boosted by the return of Michael Vaughan, Matthew Hoggard and Craig White who all played prominent parts in England beating India in the first Test at Lord's.

Yorkshire (v Surrey) from: Wood, White, Silverwood, Vaughan, Lehmann, McGrath, Fellows, Blakey, Dawson, Sidebottom, Hoggard, Lumb.

Updated: 11:57 Tuesday, July 30, 2002