One week into a new season and already the frustrations of playing cricket in England in April have been fully realised.

The Benson & Hedges Cup has so far been dominated by rain and of Somerset’s three games so far, two have been washed out and the other was unfortunately a Duckworth/Lewis assisted loss to Northamptonshire. After scoring 257 off our 50 overs, Northants needed 76 to win off 10.3 overs, with 7 wickets in hand when the rain hit. When play resumed some 40 minutes later their target had been reduced to need 6 to win off 9 balls, which they achieved with 5 balls to spare.

Duckworth/Lewis is a system that I don’t think anybody understands except the Bristol and Cambridge professors who devised it. At the moment it is almost a swear word down the south-west as it seems to work against us every time we come across it. However, it seems to be far more equitable than the previous systems - the only certainty with it is that it will favour whoever maintains wickets in hand.

Who can blame crowds for not turning up or becoming restless when the players do not seem to want to play!?

Even more frustrating was yesterday’s non-result v Glamorgan. Persistent overnight rain made the bowler’s run-ups at both ends very heavy on the prepared wicket and prospects of them drying in the overcast conditions were not great. As a solution, curator Phil Frost, decided to prepare the wicket next door, which was being prepared for tomorrow’s game, in readiness for a 30 overs per side match and a 2:00pm start. Unfortunately the umpires and Glamorgan skipper Matthew Maynard, didn’t agree with our assessment of the conditions and a 10 over per side match was scheduled for a 5:00pm start (as playing conditions state that these matches can take place in virtually any conditions as long as the umpires do not consider them farcical).

Predictably, at 4:55pm the heavens opened again, the match was abandoned and ironically the conditions were all of a sudden fit for Glamorgan to run around and conduct an impromptu fitness session in the rain!! Having already won a game earlier in the week we could not help but feel as though they were content to leave with one point? Who can blame crowds for not turning up or becoming restless when the players do not seem to want to play!?

As a player you wonder how many others will be implicated and whether or not the real truth will ever see the light of day

Tomorrow Somerset take on Worcester in a must-win game at Taunton, in what will be Glenn McGrath’s debut for his new county. He and Warney arrived from South Africa yesterday, with Warney in particular attracting the expected fanfare and speculation about how he may perform. Glenn should have great success bowling on a fairly helpful pitch at Worcester and although I don’t remember Southampton spinning much last year, I’m sure Warney’s general ‘aura’ over here will see him have good success also, if he can stay fit. He will not have it all his own way however, as there will no doubt be a few Englishmen keen to ‘take him down’ and there are some very fine county players over here capable of doing so. As a patriotic Aussie, my greatest hope is that they both remain fit and fresh. Both have toured with Australia and they would undoubtedly had advice from those who have played over here previously but nothing can prepare you for the day-to-day grind of the county scene.

On any normal day Warney’s arrival in the UK would be back, if not front, page news but today unfortunately the current match-fixing scandal has taken a new twist over here. Former England all-rounder, Chris Lewis, has been quoted in the press as saying that he knows of 3 former ‘household names’ in English cricket who have been involved in dealings with bookmakers. Many of the current and former players have requested that these players be named as anonymity implicates everybody but after a day long meeting at Lords yesterday, the names are still yet to be publicly disclosed. The cricket world now seems to preparing itself for a massive investigation and as a player you wonder how many others will be implicated and whether or not the real truth will ever see the plain light of day. One thing is now for certain and that is that this has now become too big to just go away - the ICC must become involved and for the credibility of our great game they must ensure that those found guilty are punished accordingly.

Jamie Cox, writing from the wintry south-west.