Vaughan brings a rare glimmer

The thick gloom over Leeds lifted during the afternoon when Michael Vaughan was at the crease. Yorkshire's reputable bowlers have had a poor season and yesterday was no exception. They took too long (23.3 overs) to remove Hampshire's last three batsmen and gave away too many runs (81). On a bowler-friendly wicket, Matthew Hoggard bowled too short, and they conceded too many no balls – 22 of the 47 runs scored in a shortened session before lunch were extras.

Yorkshire, the holders, have lost their first three Championship matches and after posting 354 on a wicket with variable bounce, Hampshire felt they were in with a better chance of winning than their opponents. But what has gone wrong on the park is only a symptom of a succession of difficulties off it.

"Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong," says Wayne Clark, Yorkshire's coach. The CID inquiry into missing money from the club shop continues and Lee Cooper, the new sponsors, appear better at making jeans than cricket clothing becauser the players don't like the new kit.

Worst of all, there is uncertainty about the captain, Darren Lehmann. The replacement of David Byas by the Australian is offered by old salts as the principal reason for Yorkshire's dicey start. If only he had stuck around, say the carpers, we'd be in better shape. It is true that they could not be in worse shape, but Clark rejects the diagnosis. He remains confident that the replacement of Byas was the right decision and insists that the players are 100 per cent happy with the succession.

But something has happened since last autumn when Lehmann agreed to skipper Yorkshire. He thought then he would play out his days captaining Yorkshire and South Australia. But last winter he was chosen again for Australia's one-day squad. He returns to Australia shortly to play in a series of internationals being played indoors in Melbourne and will be out for three weeks, when he will be replaced by Simon Katitch.

That is unhelpful, but the more serious problem will arise if he plays one-day internationals throughout a busy winter and decides to commit himself to Australia rather than Yorkshire.

Clark's long-term problem is that there is no obvious successor. Dick Blakey, the vice-captain, is a 35-year-old stopgap, and none of the younger prospects are ready to take over. However, his short-term problems are quite enough to be going on with.

If Vaughan were available for the Championship season he would, no doubt, be more relaxed. Batting No 3, Vaughan faced the third ball of the Yorkshire innings, the unfortunate Matthew Wood having given John Crawley a catch that was doubly painful to him. The ball hit his thumb and bounced, leaving him with his third duck in three innings at Headingley this summer.

Vaughan looked completely comfortable against a Hampshire attack that was more testing than the Sri Lankans off whom he took his second Test century at Lord's. Alan Mullally moved the ball sharply towards the slips, causing Craig White some anxiety. But Vaughan missed hardly anything on the leg side and there was enough of that from Dimitri Mascarenhas and Chris Tremlett to keep the score ticking over. When Vaughan attacked, the ball usually went hard to the boundary, mostly square on both sides of the wicket.

He seemed so secure that is was a shock when he aimed for midwicket, played across the ball and was given lbw; 54 in 68 balls and it had been like lobster and Montrachet after fried fish and warm beer.