It was an ominous sign - three ducks waddling on the outfield.

'Welcome to Worcester CCC', the sign on the gate said. To the Sussex players getting out of their cars, it looked like the monsoons had diverted their course from Bangladesh.

A saturated outfield and four days of nearly constant rainfall meant that only 17 overs of play were possible in four days against Worcestershire. We have players in our team who have been in first class cricket for more than 15 years and no one had played in a game in which so few overs were bowled.

We have now had more days of cricket washed out than we did during the whole of last summer.

We were also deprived the chance of pitting our skills against one of the teams that was promoted into the first division this year.

Worcestershire appear to be a well drilled team with some talented players (Bichel, Hick and Solanki to name just three) but we would back ourselves to come away with a fair few points and work our way up the table. Instead, there was much thumb-twiddling.

A cricket dressing room during rain would make a fascinating study for a sociologist. Eleven different characters makes for diverse patterns of behaviour.

There is a card-playing contingent in every team. For us it is a small one but the likes of Innes, Cottey, Ambrose and Davis reach for the pack fairly quickly. For others, it is a chance to read the newspapers and catch up with what is going on in the rest of the world.

The professional cricket team can be a very insular environment, particularly if a match, or season, becomes tense. I often find that I lose track of events in the Middle East or America during these times.

The most popular papers are The Times, The Telegraph and The Sun (if playing at home you can add The Argus to that list, obviously!). This week I must have read each one every day from cover to cover.

Others prefer to sit and talk cricket.

Reviews and previews of matches, analysis of opposition teams and players, naming dream teams, naming county cricket's ugly eleven/most disliked eleven/ginger eleven etc.

There are also those of us who settle down to a good book. Our new opening partnership of Montgomerie and Ward are prolific readers. Others catch up on sleep or make use of our long-fingered physio with some treatment.

Mushtaq amuses us with stories of his days playing for Pakistan with legends like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

The rain was so heavy and the outfield so saturated that, for the first two days of the game, we were back in our hotel by lunchtime, so confident were the umpires that no play would be possible.

All the hotels we stay in have good gyms and swimming pools and these were in much use last week. There was also a golf course nearby and the more forward thinking of the players, who had packed their clubs, enjoyed a rare chance to lower their handicaps.

We also have had one amusing team meal that ended with a few games of charades and Pictionary. The sight of Mohammad Akram impersonating the New Zealand umpire, Billy Bowden, and Murray Goodwin drawing the film 'Free Willy' will live long in the memory - well, longer at least than the rest of the four distinctly frustrating and forgettable days in Worcester.