ENGLAND captain Michael Vaughan is close to securing his future with Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the Evening Press can exclusively reveal.

Vaughan, who is confident of being 100 per cent fit for England's forthcoming tour to India following his knee surgery, has been in negotiations with the county over a new deal.

No details of the arrangement were given but Vaughan told the Press: "I hope to sign a new contract with the club in the next couple of weeks.

"We're in the middle of trying to sort it out but hopefully I will be here for a while. I can't see myself playing anywhere else yet."

Vaughan was speaking in York at an event marking the establishment in the city of DWA Architects' head office, the firm that is designing the batsman's new house between Barnsley and his home city of Sheffield. He also signed sporting memorabilia for a charity auction held by DWA Architects last night.

Vaughan is to leave for India with the England squad on February 12. They will play two warm-up matches before a three-Test series and seven one-day internationals, and Vaughan says the public should not expect too much of his team.

"People have to be realistic," he explained. "We're quite young, we've got some really good players but our experience playing abroad is not there at the moment."

England's memorable Ashes win was followed by a losing tour to Pakistan and Vaughan reckoned his side were underdogs again.

"They've got to be favourites on home soil," he said of India. "Only Australia in the last 14 years have won there, which is a hell of a record at home.

"They've got every area covered - seam bowlers, mystery spinners and phenomenal batsmen - but that's not to say we can't have a good tour if we keep our discipline and work hard."

Manchester-born Vaughan said fitness was key for both this tour and the trip to Australia at the end of the year, where they will defend the Ashes. And he believed burn-out would not be a problem.

"We will have had eight weeks off (since the tour to Pakistan) and not many sportsmen get that time off," he said.

"If we look after our bodies in that time and do our fitness, we should be fine."

He added that rest at the right times would also be important: "It's difficult to tell someone not to play because players want to play all the time, but we've got to make sure we look at winning games first and foremost and have an eye on having a fit squad to go to Australia."

As for his own fitness, he said: "The knee's all right. It's been four weeks since the operation. I've done rehab and I've just started running indoors on soft surfaces in the last few days. You need a little bit of luck but if that stays with me I'm sure I will be fine for the tour."

Updated: 10:13 Friday, January 20, 2006