Yorkshire County Cricket Club may soon end the Darren Gough saga by insisting that he stays with the club until his contract expires at the end of next season.

It is now almost three weeks since England's star strike bowler said he was unhappy at Yorkshire and was considering leaving his native county.

Although Yorkshire have been pressing Gough to make up his mind, he still had not done so when the general committee met at Headingley a couple of days ago.

I understand that Gough has not answered every communication from Yorkshire and that some members of the committee are becoming impatient for the impasse to be resolved.

Yorkshire do not want to give the impression that they are pressurising Gough to leave and one solution may be for them to state that they want him to see out his contract.

Such a course of action would prevent Gough from moving to another county next summer.

Essex are believed to be eager for his signature if he were to go on the market.

Gough said in a Sunday newspaper almost a fortnight ago that he could not drag things out for much longer.

"A decision needs to be made so my life can return to normal," he said.

"I want it sorted out by the end of November."

Unless secret talks have taken place over the past couple of days, Yorkshire seem no nearer to knowing Gough's intentions and holding him to his contract would show they were not wanting rid of him as well as stopping him from springing a surprise on them this weekend.

Updated: 12:39 Friday, November 30, 2001