White has high aims as he says goodbye to Yorkshire

The former Yorkshire and England all-rounder, 41, is looking to don the white coat after deciding not to reapply for his position as first-team coach at Headingley Carnegie.

Yorkshire are restructuring their coaching staff after the five men working beneath director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon were invited to apply for four new jobs.

White, who stressed he was leaving on his own terms and also on thoroughly amicable ones, said he had come to realise that certain aspects of coaching were not for him and that he now wants to pursue a different direction.

“It was my choice completely not to reapply for the job and I am leaving Yorkshire on friendly terms,” he said.

“A lot of people, when they leave clubs, do so all bitter and twisted but that most certainly is not the case with me.

“When I found out that the coaches were having to reapply for their positions it just brought a few things into focus from my point of view.

“It gave me time to reflect and think about the future and what I want to be doing with my life in 10 years’ time.

“As much as I love working with the players and the cricketing aspects, there are some parts of coaching I don’t enjoy.

“There’s a lot of coaching badges you’ve got to do nowadays, and I hate sitting down and doing that sort of thing.

“I hated school, and doing coaching badges is a bit like going back to school and doing assignments.

“All I wanted was to be outside working with the players, but that’s only part of a coach’s job.”

Now White will pursue an umpiring career that would keep him at the heart of a sport he has graced with distinction.

His initial target is to get on the English first-class list before hoping, ultimately, to follow in the footsteps of former Yorkshire umpire Dickie Bird by officiating at the highest level.

“I want to aim as high as I can and work my way up on to the international panel,” added White.

“It will be hard work and there’s no guarantee I’ll make it, but I’m determined to give it a crack.

“I’ve played at international level and I know the pressures involved, so hopefully that will stand me in good stead.

“But my first objective is to get on the first-class list.”

White, who represented Yorkshire between 1990 and 2007, said he always fancied a crack at umpiring.

“I’ve always been interested in it, and, when I was coming towards the end of my playing career, I looked at the various possibilities,” he admitted.

“But then I got involved with the Yorkshire second XI and then gave coaching a bit of a crack.

“I’m hoping that I might be able to umpire a few second-team games next summer and take it from there.

“But I’m going to have to find something else to do while I try to get on the first-class list, so I might have to play league cricket for a couple of years and get a bit of money that way and perhaps do a bit of coaching along the way.”

White can look back with pride on his association with Yorkshire.

He played 221 first-class games for the county, scoring 10,376 runs at 34.01 and taking 276 wickets at 27.71.

“It’s sad to leave, but I’ve so many happy memories,” he reflected. “There have been some great times and I’ve made some terrific friends along the way.

“Yorkshire cricket has been my life and winning the Championship and a one-day final at Lord’s were obvious highlights.

“If you told me I’d have been involved at the club for so long when I first came to Yorkshire as a teenager, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Moxon last night paid tribute to White, describing him as a tremendous ambassador.

“Craig has been a wonderful servant to Yorkshire over a long period of time,” said Moxon.

“He’s been very committed and passionate about Yorkshire cricket and was certainly a tremendous help to me in the two years in which he was my assistant.

“Craig has decided he needs to go in a different direction and I can fully understand where he’s coming from.

“I totally respect his wishes and would like to wish him all the very best for the future.”

Yorkshire hope to announce their new coaching structure within the next fortnight, with interviews having now taken place for the four new roles.

The club have had “a significant number of applicants” as they look to appoint a senior coach to work with the first team, another to work with the second XI, a director of cricket development responsible for the Yorkshire Academy and age-group squads, and a development manager to work under the director of cricket development.

Moxon confirmed that batting coach Kevin Sharp, academy director and bowling coach Steve Oldham, operations manager Ian Dews and second-team coach/assistant bowling coach John Blain have all reapplied for positions.

“The coaching structure has been on the agenda for a couple of years now in terms of how we take it forward and the number of people we have in the various roles,” added Moxon.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s coincided with us being relegated in the County Championship because it comes across as though we’re doing it just because of that, whereas this would have happened even if we hadn’t gone down.

“It’s certainly not a cosmetic exercise and what I hope it will do from a personal point of view is enable me to spend more time doing what I need to do on the cricketing side.

“In the old structure, I was constantly moving from one thing to the next and there were eight people directly reporting to me whereas in the new structure there will only be three.”

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