WITH the weather holding Yorkshire back on the pitch, a dramatic turnaround off it has seen their overseas star Rana Naved return to the UK, and put himself in contention for a comeback in Sunday’s game against Gloucestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy.

His arrival ends months of confusion regarding visa problems, which until the beginning of this week left the club wondering if the Pakistan international would ever play for the county again.

“He flies in on Friday,”

said director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon.

“I must admit a week or so ago we thought it was never going to happen but that’s not totally Rana’s fault because everything has been taking longer in Pakistan than normal.”

The return of the 31-yearold follows a frantic few days, after the club gave him a deadline of 5pm yesterday to be back with the squad or his contract would be terminated.

Despite that it now seems he will be welcomed back.

“There won’t be any disciplinary proceedings,”

added Moxon. “We’ve been in regular contact and he’s been playing first-class cricket all winter so we are confident he will return fit and ready.”

That generosity may well have something to do with Tim Bresnan’s call up by England though, which could see him unavailable until late May.

Naved is Yorkshire’s most like for like replacement, and with the fixtures coming thick and fast he could be thrust into the middle within 48 hours.

It wasn’t such an encouraging day of action for Yorkshire after the weather and dropped catches meant little progress could be made against Worcestershire in a game which now looks like being a draw.

The tactics on day three were clear and after batting on for 14 overs before declaring on 460 for six, the Tykes’ attack was then charged with trying to bowl out the visitors as quickly as possible.

Despite an early wicket for Matthew Hoggard, that never really seemed possible though and twice dropping Vikram Solanki didn’t help.

Those errors were sandwiched between eight separate delays for the weather and by the close Worcestershire had reached 100 for two in their first innings, with Solanki unbeaten on 66 and Moeen Ali on 15.

It means they are 360 runs behind Yorkshire with eight wickets in hand.

LV COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE

Yorkshire v Worcestershire At Headingley Carnegi

Overnight: Yorkshire 394-3 (J A Rudolph 194 no, A McGrath 120).

Yorkshire First Innings

J A Rudolph st S M Davies b Mitchell 198

A W Gale c M M Ali b Mitchell ...............21

G L Brophy b Mitchell ..........................16

T T Bresnan not out ............................17

A Shahzad not out .............................20

Extras (lb1 w7 nb6 pens 0)......14

Total 6 wkts dec (136 overs)..460

Fall: 1-123 2-130 3-367 4-405 5-405 6-426

Did Not Bat: D J Wainwright, S A Patterson, M J Hoggard.

Score at 130 overs: 5-420

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 5 Worcestershire 1 Noffke 29-6-77-1. Mason 31-8-75-0. Whelan 21-1-105-1. Arif 12-0-75-0. Batty 26-2-78-0.

Mitchell 17-3-49-4.

Worcestershire First Innings Close

D K Mitchell lbw b Shahzad ..................10

A N Kervezee c Sayers b Hoggard ........ 2 V S Solanki not out .............................66

M M Ali not out ....................................15

Extras (b1 lb1 w5 pens 0)............ 7

Total 2 wkts (47 overs)................. ..

100

Fall: 1-3 2-39

To Bat: D A Wheeldon, S M Davies, G J Batty, A A Noffke, C D Whelan, M S Mason, Imran Arif.

Bonus Pts: Yorkshire 5 Worcestershire 1 Bowling: Hoggard 12-3-27-1. Bresnan 13- 3-35-0. Patterson 10-6-19-0. Shahzad 10-7- 15-1. McGrath 2-1-2-0.