England have told Yorkshire that Matthew Hoggard and Michael Vaughan will not be allowed to play for the County Champions in their opening match against Surrey at Headingley, starting on April 24, or the first three Benson and Hedges Cup games which follow.

But they can return for the B&H fixtures with Derbyshire and Lancashire and they will remain available for the Championship clash with Somerset at Taunton beginning on May 8.

The good news for Yorkshire is that England have imposed no restrictions on either Darren Gough or Craig White and they should be free to play for the county throughout the opening weeks.

It is imperative that Yorkshire get off to a good start because the first Test between England and Sri Lanka gets underway on May 15 and from then on they are likely to be missing their top players on a regular basis throughout the summer.

Both Hoggard and Vaughan are entitled to a break after their exhausting winters with England and Yorkshire cannot complain at the ECB wanting them to rest until May 4.

The B&H games they will miss are against Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Durham but Yorkshire will have plenty of adequate cover if everyone else is fit.

Yorkshire now look certain to be without new captain Darren Lehmann for around a fortnight during a busy period of cricket in June.

But contingency plans are already in hand to have fellow Australian Simon Katich available as cover for Lehmann. Katich was due to stand in for Lehmann at the start of the season if Australia's tour of Zimbabwe had gone ahead.

Australia have announced they are to host a Super Challenge series of three one-day matches against Pakistan from June 12-19 and it will be a big surprise if Lehmann is not in their squad as Australia continue their build-up towards next year's World Cup.

If Lehmann is required, he would probably be unavailable for Yorkshire from the Norwich Union National League match with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge on June 9 and would definitely miss the Championship game against Sussex at Headingley, the National League fixture with Warwickshire which immediately follows it, and the expected visit to Northants on June 19 in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.

Should Yorkshire reach the Lord's final of the B&H Cup on June 22 they will be pulling out all the stops to have Lehmann back with them in time.

Yorkshire concluded their pre-season tour of Grenada yesterday with a 40 overs match against Northamptonshire which was held as a memorial to Sussex's Umer Rashid who drowned in a waterfall pool on the island earlier this week along with his brother.

John Sadler hit 52 with nine fours and Chris Taylor contributed 36 to Yorkshire's 202 for eight but Northants scraped home by two wickets, Mal Loye (61) and Jeff Cook (56) being their top scorers.

Updated: 11:41 Thursday, April 04, 2002