DAVID WARNER runs the rule over his six possible candidates for the county club's presidency.

As the summer moves on, Yorkshire members are starting to wonder who will be nominated for election as the club's new president at the annual general meeting next March.

The current president, Robin Smith, who is also chairman of the four-man management board, is now in the latter part of his two-year presidential term and he let it be known some time ago that he would like the next president to be someone who has a long and distinguished record with the club.

Who that person may be is anybody's guess but six names stand out as being candidates who have become household names around the cricketing world.

Bob Appleyard, Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Geoff Boycott, Ray Illingworth and Dickie Bird need no introduction whatsoever, and only Bird of that illustrious sextet acquired real fame (and fortune) after his playing days were over.

So which one would be most readily accepted by the club's members - who rarely if ever agree on anything - and which would make the best president?

And, of the six, which of them would be happy to be a figurehead president if that were wanted, and which would prefer to have a hands-on involvement in Yorkshire's controversial affairs?

Appleyard, at 79, is the oldest of the luminaries and perhaps the surprise name in my list but he remains one of Yorkshire and England's greatest bowlers and he will be forever remembered as taking 200 first class wickets in his first season in county cricket.

Appleyard's final tally of Yorkshire wickets was 642 at a miserly cost of 15.42 runs apiece.

And everyone is agreed that he would have taken many more if his career had not been cut short by tuberculosis.

He continues to have a mind as sharp as a razor and still has superb contacts both within cricket and business circles.

He has raised more money for Yorkshire cricket, particularly in providing funding for the Academy in its formative years, than probably anyone else, but he would not be happy being a president who just poured the drinks out of the cocktail cabinet if Yorkshire can ever afford one.

Illingworth is the shrewdest of the bunch and he knows cricket inside out, having been closely associated with the game from his earliest days with Yorkshire right through to captaining Leicestershire and England before returning to manage and lead his native county and then becoming England supremo.

Even when he finished in that job, Illingworth continued his passion for the game with his home Bradford League club, Farsley, where he lovingly looks after the square.

Illy, of course, could not do the job without calling a spade a spade and neither could he leave decision-making to others - just as Boycott would be out of place purely as a figurehead president.

Recent reports indicate that Boycott is making an excellent recovery from his serious illness, which is great news. If he accepted an invitation to be nominated as president it goes without saying that he would put his heart and soul into the office.

The controversies surrounding Boycott's brilliant playing career are now a thing of the past and few people would doubt that he would put just as much time and thought into his presidency as he did his batting.

Boycott's record of 32,570 runs for Yorkshire has been exceeded only by Herbert Sutcliffe and David Denton and he is streets ahead of his nearest living rivals - just as Fiery Fred's 1,745 wickets put him in a class all of his own.

Like Boycott, Trueman is also one of England's all-time greats and very possibly their greatest ever fast bowler. He remains one of cricket's most colourful characters and no-one epitomises the gruff Yorkshireman more than Fred.

He's taken plenty of buffetings with Yorkshire and wounded pride has often kept him away from Headingley but bygones could be bygones if he were made president.

The same applies to Brian Close, a true cricketing hero and Yorkshire's most outstanding captain since the war, as well as being England's most inspirational leader and unquestionably the most fearless.

Such is his legendary reputation around the world and so many stories surround the man that his Yorkshire record tends to get overlooked - 22,650 runs and 967 wickets, plus 564 catches, most of them in suicidal positions a yard or so from the bat.

Then, of course, there is Dickie Bird, umpire extraordinary and a man who has made a million through raising his finger and saying 'That's Out'.

If Yorkshire want a figurehead president who turns up whenever asked and never interferes with the running of the club then Bird could be their man.

Some may feel he would be a lightweight president but he's a great raconteur, he knows his cricket and he hasn't got an enemy in the world.

Yorkshire's management board may in the end decide on some other notable Yorkshire personality to put up as president, someone, perhaps, who has not made his name on the field.

But if they do go for a distinguished ex-cricketer or a celebrated former umpire they have six of the best to choose from.

Updated: 11:06 Saturday, July 19, 2003