Cricket: Damp has its day

Lancashire 506 Durham 201-6 Match drawn

It was a far cry from Sri Lanka as Dav Whatmore watched a steady Lancashire drizzle wash out his new side's chances of starting the county championship season with a victory.

"There are two monsoon seasons a year in Sri Lanka and when it rains it buckets it down," said Whatmore, the coach who steered them to the World Cup before taking up the very different challenge at Old Trafford. "But it's more predictable."

Lancastrians who adopt a fatalistic approach to the County Championship might argue that this was predictable as well. In a winning position after a first day spent feasting on the Durham bowling, Lancashire were denied by two days of rain the flying start to their campaign that was beckoning.

Not that Whatmore - "the one Australian I've met who's not overbearing," as one old Lancashire retainer described him - has been taking anything for granted.

"I wasn't approaching it as an easy game," he insisted. "Saying that we should win was based on Durham's form over the last couple of seasons, but they seem to me to have recruited pretty well."

Central to that recruitment, of course, is Whatmore's fellow Australian David Boon, who remained high, if not exactly dry, on 85 not out.

"He can't help but pass the right sort of information on," said Whatmore, "and they also seem to have two bowlers they can build an attack on in Simon Brown and Melvyn Betts."

For all that, Lancashire would have been expected to carry on the good work of their Australian tour and their comprehensive four-day friendly win over Yorkshire, if the elements had been kinder.

As Whatmore points out, they have a lot of players in conspicuously good nick for this early stage of the season. As he is only too aware, Lancashire's followers know how they want the season to end. "Everyone focuses on the county championship, but the more you focus on it, the more of a problem it becomes," he said.

Monsoons permitting, naturally. As it was, the only result Lancashire could force was a 3-2 win over Durham in a football match on one of the drier sections of the outfield - and there were no bonus points for that.