aThe almost certain ban which England will impose on Darren Gough and Craig White from playing for Yorkshire in the last two Championship matches of the season has widened even further the gulf between county and country.

It means that Yorkshire and England's main strike bowler will have been seen in only three Championship games this season and the same will probably apply to White.

That's in addition to Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard missing large chunks of the season because of Test commitments.

Yorkshire fans can accept the logic of key Test players and particularly fast bowlers being rested before an England match when they have just gone through a long spell of cricket.

But they are incredulous that those players who are chosen for the one-day internationals in Kenya in October and also the winter tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka should not be allowed to take part in the climax of the Championship programme.

And they could only shake their heads in disbelief that Gough, desperate for some cricket before the current Test, should be barred from taking part in the Roses match but was given the go-ahead to spend last Saturday afternoon playing for the Yorkshire Academy in their Yorkshire League clash with his home club, Barnsley.

As it happened, rain caused the match to be abandoned after a few overs without Gough getting the chance to bowl, so as a last throw of the dice he was drafted in for the Academy's game on Sunday against Yorkshire League leaders Sheffield United at Bawtry Road when he captured four wickets.

But many would argue that Gough's warm-up for the Test against league batsmen could in no way be as beneficial as a serious bowl against Michael Atherton and Co.

The real tragedy of all this nonsense, however, isn't that many Yorkshire followers are angry that Gough and White no longer appear regularly in the side but that they are beginning not to care.

They can see that neither player has been allowed to contribute a great deal to a Championship campaign that has so far kept Yorkshire in the table's top three all season and they would prefer to see a couple of the young regulars in the side for the last two matches rather than them having to give way to the Test duo.

Now that everything is geared to playing for England, Test players cannot give their all for their counties which means that their counties are very often better without them if they are only available for the odd match or two.

Duncan Fletcher is 100 per cent committed to achieving success for England but at what price?

The Zimbabwean has not been weaned on county cricket and cannot fully grasp its importance as an integral part of the structure of the game in this country.

If county cricket comes crashing down because it is being devalued then England will eventually find themselves in the rubble as well.