England appeared to have a communication breakdown with Yorkshire yesterday over Craig White whose stiff back caused him to be pulled out of the Test squad at Lord's.

Yorkshire coach Wayne Clark was under the impression that White was being sent back to his Scarborough home with instructions to rest up for a fortnight.

England boss Duncan Fletcher implied, however, that White had been laid off from bowling for two weeks but that there was no objection to Yorkshire playing the all-rounder in their next two matches solely as a batsman.

Clark said he was going to contact White when the he had returned to his Scarborough base in order to discover the precise situation over his injury.

Yorkshire will today choose their squad for the Norwich Union National League game against Gloucestershire at Bristol on Sunday but they face a dilemma over whether they will want to pick White for batting purposes only.

The problem will be even harder to resolve for next Wednesday's vital Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-final match with Somerset at Taunton because Yorkshire will then have Michael Vaughan back in the side.

And Yorkshire may not wish to discard someone else for an out-of-form White.

With England not allowing White to start off the season with Yorkshire, he has so far played in only two Benson and Hedges group games and one Championship match, scoring a total of 26 runs from four innings.

Yorkshire may find themselves under pressure from England to play White in order to give him a chance of making it for the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford.

But to include him as a batsman only may not be in the county's best interests.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire experienced another blank day against Essex at Chelmsford yesterday when heavy rain, swept on by a bitterly cold wind, once again waterlogged the ground.

The last time Yorkshire had the first two days of a Championship match washed out was in September, 1995, when their opponents were Sussex at Scarborough.

If the game begins with less than eight hours remaining it will become a single innings affair with 12 points for the winners and three points for each side if it ends in a draw.