It's been a varied week for Yorkshire and England all-rounder, Craig White, what with breaking down while bowling at The Oval last Sunday, contemplating retirement on Monday, having a re-think on Tuesday and making a surprise appearance against the Indians at Headingley over the following three days.

Now White has stabilised his situation by saying that he will play for Yorkshire solely as a batsman for the next few weeks at least and then consider his future at the end of the season.

White had every reason to be glum when he doubled up in agony after digging one in short to Surrey left-hander Mark Butcher and then had to leave the field with the feeling that a knife had been stuck in his side.

He had only just begun bowling again after his pre-season operation to remove a couple of inches of rib bone and he was fearful that the old trouble was bothering him once more.

Fortunately, hospital scans later indicated that there had been no tearing of scar tissue and medical opinion was that the seriousness of the operation meant some pain was likely for a while.

White felt he had started bowling too soon and he is unlikely to make the same mistake twice but he also realises that if he does kick in bowling altogether then his England career is almost certainly at an end.

It is as a clean hitting middle-to-late order batsman and a bowler who is surprisingly quick off the pitch that White has made his mark with England and without both strings to his bow he will probably not be required, particularly now that Andy Flintoff has this summer established himself as the new Ian Botham.

As a batsman, of course, White possibly still has plenty to offer because he remains a class act when on song - as he showed recently at Derby with a superlative 173 not out.

But when White gets down to pondering his future, will he feel that constant county cricket will continue to satisfy him after living on the adrenaline of Test cricket and one-day internationals?

And, on the other side of the coin, will Yorkshire feel that they will get full value out of him if they offer him a new contract as a batsman only?

White will be 34 next summer and by no means past it, but if cash-strapped Yorkshire keep him on it may mean they will have to sacrifice one or two of the younger players they can't go on affording.

How the situation will resolve itself is not clear but in the meantime White intends concentrating hard on trying to score enough runs to bring Yorkshire a third consecutive Championship win in the match which begins at Riverside tomorrow.

Yorkshire's three-day fixture with India A petered out into the most boring of draws on Friday but the Tourists played the game in the right spirit and it was a pity that the contest attracted a mere handful of spectators on each day.

Perhaps more could have been done to publicise the game, originally shown on Yorkshire's fixture list as a one-day affair, and it would have been nice if the club could have shown a little more hospitality to their visitors.

Whenever Yorkshire have gone on a pre-season tour, particularly to South Africa in recent years, they have always been warmly received, given a reception and generally made to feel welcome.

There appeared to be no such friendly greeting for the Indians, who brought a quality side packed with Test and one-day internationals, and they seemed to be just allowed to get off their ECB-provided coach, play their cricket and get back on the coach again.

Apart from director of cricket, Geoff Cope, being around for part of the time, the other members of the Gang of Four management board seemed conspicuous by their absence.

They say they are keen to market the game properly and do everything possible to make cricket at Headingley an attractive proposition, but not much thought seemed to go into making the visiting team feel at home.