Yorkshire cricket is on the up - as was clearly shown last weekend when four White Rose players were included in the England squad of 16 for this winter's Test tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

And it was another big feather in Yorkshire's cap when England boss Duncan Fletcher invited Martyn Moxon to be his assistant for the one-day internationals in Kenya and the two other countries over the next few months.

Darren Gough, Craig White and Michael Vaughan were all nailed on certainties for the Test trips abroad and the decision to take Matthew Hoggard as well shows just how rapid the development of the Pudsey-reared paceman has been.

Hoggard is the first to admit that his mind at the start of this season was focussed firmly on cementing his place in Yorkshire's first team and that thoughts of playing for England never entered his head.

But once Hoggard's potential had been noted by the England hierarchy during Yorkshire's televised Benson and Hedges Cup quarter-final match against Surrey at Headingley on May 9 he was on his way to the top.

Yorkshire lost that game by seven runs but Hoggard blasted out Mark Butcher, Alistair Brown, Graham Thorpe and skipper Adam Hollioake in such impressive style that England chairman of selectors David Graveney soon admitted that the 23-year-old had only narrowly missed out on being selected for the first Test against Zimbabwe at Lord's.

But Hoggard still went on to make his Test debut at cricket's headquarters when he was chosen for the second Test against the West Indies on June 29 and, although he did not take a wicket, it was his fine spell in the first innings which fired up Gough and Dominic Cork.

Hoggard never got a bowl in the second innings because the West Indies were sensationally routed for 54 and the abiding memory of Hoggard was watching him padded and gloved and waiting agonisingly to see if he would be needed to come in as last man in the dramatic finish.

Much to his relief, and everyone else's, Cork and Gough got England to their target and they won by two wickets.

Like Brian Close before him, Hoggard had been capped for England before Yorkshire but that was put right during the Championship match against Somerset at Scarborough.

Hoggard has gone from strength to strength and only a couple of hours after learning of his tour selection on Sunday he was knocking down five Northants batsmen to take Yorkshire to the top of the National League.

Hoggard has now taken 32 wickets in the competition this season and when he got to 30 it took him past the Yorkshire record in county league matches which was set by Howard Cooper in the John Player League 25 years' ago.

Quietly spoken off the field, but a pretty fearsome sight on it with his close cropped hairstyle, Hoggard is determined to do well in Pakistan and Sri Lanka - and also to enjoy himself.

"I have never been to the sub continent before but I know that the pitches are normally flat so I will be looking to swing the ball a lot and to use reverse swing when the ball gets older and softer.

"I am not going with any preconceived ideas and I will just take everything as it comes. I see myself as part of a squad rather than as an individual and everybody will have his own role. I am going to fulfil my role to the very best of my ability."

Although Andy Caddick and Cork have also shone this summer, Gough has managed to preserve his reputation for being the biggest star in the England galaxy and it was his brilliant bowling in each innings of the Headingley Test which largely assisted in the West Indies being destroyed by an innings and 39 runs.

Gough will be keen to hold on to his crown this winter as he spearheads the attack in both the Tests and the one-day internationals and every success he enjoys is bound to boost the benefit season he has been awarded by Yorkshire next year.

Like Gough, White is a member of both Test and one-day parties and his international career has taken the most unusual twist of all the Yorkshire players.

Born in Morley, but brought up in Australia, White came back to his native county in 1990 to be among the first intake at the new Yorkshire Academy at Bradford Park Avenue but such was his obvious talent that he went straight into the first team and he never did join the 'students'.

White was solely a batsman at the time who went on to bowl off-breaks quite usefully but he gave these up after it was alleged his came close to being called for throwing while playing for Victoria during winter.

It was around 1993 before White took up quick bowling in an attempt to augment Yorkshire's attack and his deceptive pace off the pitch startled even the best of batsmen.

Now he is almost as quick as Gough and his five wickets in the first innings at Headingley have made sure he is an integral part of the England front line attack - not bad for someone who started out as a batsman.

If there is one person who never doubted that Vaughan would make it to the top it is Vaughan himself and that is not because of an outsized ego but because of a steadfast belief in his own abilities.

From the moment he first wore an England cap in South Africa last winter, Vaughan looked to the manor born and his batting has been so orthodox and certain ever since that it cannot be long now before he shoulders out Michael Atherton from the opener's slot.

Vaughan thinks things out methodically and is ideally suited to the cut and thrust of cricket at the highest level. Unlike Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash, who are outstanding for their counties but less confident in their abilities in the Test arena, Vaughan revels in the big occasion.

Unless something goes drastically wrong for him, Vaughan should become captain of England one-day and he is just at the start of what should be a long and fruitful Test career.

Moxon, of course, knows what Test cricket is all about and he may atone for an England career which never really got off the ground because of various misfortunes by becoming the country's top coach.

Moxon would not have been chosen to assist Duncan Fletcher in the one-day internationals if he had not created a big impression as England A team coach on last winter's tours of Pakistan and New Zealand.

He has done outstanding work for Yorkshire since stepping down as a player and the high regard he is held in by England is one in the eye for those Yorkshire committee players who would have preferred an overseas 'star' to be in charge of the county.