IF Yorkshire are to challenge for any kind of silverware in 2009, Jacques Rudolph has to sparkle again, Anthony Mc- Grath has to come to terms with the workload of being the captain, a top batsman and the club’s beneficiary, and Adil Rashid has to take wickets.

The other thing that probably has to happen is that Michael Vaughan bats well, but still gets overlooked by the England selectors for an Ashes recall.

Vaughan, the former England Test captain, believes the County Championship is top of the White Rose county’s hitlist.

There are plenty of other clubs who say the same. Just ask Will Smith.

“The Championship is the hardest competition to win,”

said 34-year-old Vaughan.

“They are all very tough, but that one is the toughest because it is played over 16 fourday games.

“It was so tight last year, with relegation as well. We believe that we have a good enough squad to push ourselves further up that league.”

Vaughan will find out on Monday whether he has made the England squad for the first Test of the summer against the West Indies on May, 6. The selectors will pick a bigger party than usual because some players are involved in the IPL.

But the likelihood is that Vaughan will be available to Yorkshire for the first half of the summer at least. He made just 12 for the MCC in front of Geoff Miller and Andy Flower at Lord’s last Monday.

When Vaughan does play for the White Rose, for however long, he will be part of a formidable batting line up which includes South African Rudolph and former England man McGrath.

If they can add weight of runs on a consistent basis, starting against Durham at the Riverside on Wednesday, then leg-spinner Rashid, Matthew Hoggard, Deon Kruis, Steve Patterson and Rana Naved, when he arrives, will have plenty of room for manoeuvre as they look for 20 wickets.

It may help Yorkshire to have the spotlight on Vaughan and he should be able to handle the attention.

“As England captain there must have been a lot of outside pressures for him, which can’t have helped,” continued Sharp, who has worked with Vaughan since he reported back for preseason training in January.

“It was a difficult time for him at the end, but now he can just concentrate on his batting.

That is all he needs to concern himself with.

“He has obviously come to terms with what has happened over the last year or two, but he still wants to play cricket for England. He came back to us in January to hit plenty of balls.

He looks very fit and focused, he is very relaxed.

“We all know that he is an absolutely fantastic player. He has not been the consistent player we know he can be over the past year or two, but if he is enjoying his cricket, and he is focused on it, then there are not many better.”

Yorkshire look primed to better last season’s seventhplace finish in the Championship.

A good spin option is invariably needed to challenge for the title. And alongside Hampshire’s Imran Tahir, a former Tyke himself, they have one of the two best spin options in LV Division One in Rashid.

An improvement in one-day fortunes last summer was plain to see. Looking to go two notches higher up the ladder than a Friends Provident Trophy semi-final, they begin their campaign with a mouthwatering clash against favourites Durham at the Riverside tomorrow.

Twenty20 is also a major aim for director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon, who was stung last season when his side were thrown out of the competition at the quarterfinal stage because of the Azeem Rafiq registration fiasco.

Moxon is awash with good one-day cricketers in the likes of Tim Bresnan and Rich Pyrah, but Middlesbroughborn all-rounder Lee Hodgson is definitely one to look out for after impressing in pre-season.

Hodgson, a winter signing from Surrey, is a technically correct batsman, an athletic fielder and a bowler who sends it down the quicker side of medium pace.