Yorkshire suffered a severe blow in their rain-wrecked Championship game against Leicestershire at Headingley yesterday when captain Craig White had to limp off the field with a torn hamstring.

White will have a scan today to discover the extent of the injury but he could be out for between four to six weeks if it proves to be serious.

He will certainly miss this week's important Championship match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl and Yorkshire's main concern now will be to try to get him fit for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy semi-final clash with Gloucestershire at Bristol on July 17 but it may be a close run thing.

Yorkshire's Australian all-rounder Ian Harvey has also been nursing a torn hamstring for the past month and he is still some time away from making his return.

"It is hugely disappointing to lose Craig because of both his captaincy and his playing ability," said director of cricket David Byas.

"Having led Yorkshire to six consecutive victories he had restored confidence in the side and it is sad that he will now be missing for a while."

Official vice-captain Matthew Wood took charge when White went off yesterday and he will continue to lead the side during White's absence.

White pulled up injured shortly before lunch after sending down the second ball of his fifth over and the loss of their captain was not the only setback Yorkshire suffered on a day in which only 46 overs had been bowled when a fierce hailstorm swamped the ground.

Wood put down three catches of varying degrees of difficulty and in 12 loose overs after lunch Yorkshire gave away 60 runs to leave Leicestershire to resume today on 237-6.

With the first day being a complete wash-out and only 25.2 overs bowled inbetween five stoppages on Saturday, the game appears certain to end in a draw later today with both sides probably preferring the safer option of picking up more bonus points rather than each sacrificing an innings and going flat out for a win.

Leicestershire resumed yesterday on 76-2 and after Tim Bresnan had completed an unfinished over Chris Silverwood had Yorkshire-born John Sadler caught by White in the gully without adding to his overnight score of six.

Silverwood soon followed up with the wicket of Brad Hodge who was lbw to one which nipped back and kept low and he would have claimed another wicket if Wood had not dropped a chest high chance off the edge of Darren Stevens' bat.

Stevens and wicketkeeper Paul Nixon added 61 together for the fifth wicket but were helped by Wood dropping Stevens on 26, the fielder flinging himself far to his right and not quite managing to hold a sharp chance.

The stand was broken by Bresnan who had Nixon coming forward defensively and giving a low catch to Simon Guy and Phil DeFreitas would have gone quickly to White if Wood had not fluffed another chance at second slip.

Two balls later, White pulled up lame and the over was completed by brother-in-law Darren Lehmann leaving speculation as to whether such a family relationship had ever shared an over before.

The dozen overs possible after lunch proved expensive for Yorkshire as Stevens and DeFreitas seized on the chance to punish some wayward bowling and Wood may have been better advised to have called upon Richard Dawson and Lehmann who had bowled short tidy spells before the interval.

DeFreitas hammered four boundaries in an over which cost Bresnan 17 but, in the same over that the Leicestershire captain took two fours off Kirby, he lost Stevens, who played on to his leg stump for 67 from 149 deliveries with ten boundaries.

DeFreitas's half-century used up only 65 balls and contained nine fours but rain came to Yorkshire's rescue.

Updated: 10:53 Monday, June 21, 2004