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 the final with Somerset," said Yorkshire coach Wayne Clark.

The presence of White 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 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 will be at Headingley today on the eve of the third Test against India.

Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Ray Illingworth and Geoff Boycott are 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 EGM 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.

* The contracts row threatening to derail the ICC Champions Trophy sent India running for cover at Headingley as it overshadowed preparations for the third Test against England.

India's board were yesterday meeting in Bangalore with a view to announcing their squad -for the 12-nation limited-overs tournament.

Speculation had arisen that a shadow squad might be named in case India's high-profile players such as master batsman Sachin Tendulkar refuse to sign away their rights to personal deals which are at odds with those of the main tournament sponsors.