The Benson and Hedges has arrived and so, therefore, has the weather.

In an ironic twist, the dry, sunny weather we had all pre-season and also during the two Championship matches, especially brought forward in the fixture list to try and give the Benson and Hedges a better chance of getting drier weather, has made way for downpours as soon as our limited overs hats have been donned.

The cricketing public have again been reminded of cricket's most infamous partnership of modern times: messrs. Duckworth and Lewis.

Richard Montgomerie remains the only member of our team (and probably the only professional cricketer in the country) to understand the workings of this extraordinarily complicated, but apparently fair, system.

His roommate has often seen him studying it for a bit of light entertainment of an evening. It was appropriate, then, that he was at the crease when it was first in use this year at Chelmsford.

It always seems to rain during the Benson and Hedges. Maybe this is the real reason why the powers that be have decided to shelve the tournament in favour of a 20 over knock-about next year.

Whether that experiment works or not will, no doubt, be the subject of a future Man in the Middle but for now the Benson and Hedges remains one of our best chances of glory this year.

That is why it was particularly galling to have lost to Essex when we were in such a good position to win the game. At 104-1 at the halfway stage, with rain clouds brewing, we were well ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis 'par' score.

But as the clouds darkened, the ball began to dart around a bit and Ronnie Irani made good use of the conditions, dismissing Chris Adams and sparking the collapse that saw our score fall way behind the asking rate, so that when it did rain we were in an impossible position.

But the beauty of this competition is that it is a mini league and although we have lost our first game we still have a very good chance of winning our group and going through to the quarter-finals. Kent are a good one-day side who have had considerable success in recent years but we are backing ourselves to beat them, as we did last year at Hastings.

When you read this you will know whether we have won or not but, whatever happens, we are all hoping that the weather will let us play. There is nothing more frustrating than being confined to a sweaty, smelly dressing room when it's pouring outside.

Keeping 11 hyperactive cricketers happy is not easy and a lot of nervous energy is spent playing cards or impromptu games of dressing room cricket. The newspapers tend to get read from cover to cover (Cottey/Yardy - the Sun/Daily Star. Montgomerie/House - the Times/Independent). Some will make the most of any indoor cricket facilities that are on offer.

This year we have invested a lot of money into a computer system called 'Crickstat'. Every ball bowled is filmed and logged and can then be analysed in minute detail at the touch of a laptop button.

Rain breaks can now be spent watching our best shots over and over to regain confidence! It is a remarkable piece of equipment. Peter Moores, who has always been one to embrace new technology, is able to call up a report, for example, that shows exactly which areas a particular bowler has bowled each ball during a match and how many runs were scored from that area.

Our bowlers have not had the best of starts to the season and so have faced some painful analyses. Sometimes you wish that technology wasn't quite so advanced!

Thursday May 2