Rain still stopping play in Madras

"It's been raining here for a month, but it didn't rain today," said a relieved Donna Armstrong, manager of the Irish women's cricket team, who are due to begin their World Cup campaign against Australia in Madras today. "Oh, wait . . . I've just been told, it's started again," she added, despondently. "If this carries on, we won't be playing any cricket today, and maybe none all week." The monsoon season in India is not meant to extend beyond the month of September, but the Irish cricket squad - and the other 11 competing nations - have experienced what can only be described as monsoon conditions since they arrived in Delhi a week ago for the opening ceremony of the 1997 tournament.

Yesterday's opening World Cup matches - India v Sri Lanka and the West Indies v the Netherlands - were washed out in Delhi, from where the Irish squad flew to Madras at the weekend to prepare for their first Group A fixture against the three-time World Cup winners.

"We couldn't believe the sight when we flew in - the area is completely flooded, you couldn't see the ground at all," said Armstrong. "All our practice matches were rained off - it's just a bit of a disaster to be honest and there's not a thing they can do. We could sit here for the next 10 days not having played a match and at the end of it, they'll have to toss a coin to see who goes through to the quarter-finals, which would be awful."

Since they arrived in India, the Irish squad has managed just two fielding-practice sessions due to the weather, one in Delhi and the second in Madras. Other than that, they have had to while away the hours in their hotel, working on their fitness. "We're trying to keep ourselves amused by doing some fitness training - at this stage, we're all getting super fit, but we're not getting to play any cricket, we just want to get out and play now." Should the match against Australia be called off, the two teams would receive three points each - that outcome would not overly disappoint Armstrong, but it is the second match, against Denmark, that she is most anxious to see go ahead.

"Realistically, we would never expect to beat Australia, the real match we have to win is against Denmark, so we are a bit worried that that could be rained off too - we want the opportunity to beat them. "If we are to reach the quarterfinals, which is our goal, we feel we have to beat Denmark and Pakistan - we don't rule out our chances of beating Australia, South Africa or England (who complete the Group A line-up), but they would certainly be our more difficult matches."

The tournament organisers will be forced to resort to `a toss of a coin' to determine the eight teams that qualify from the two groups for the quarter-finals should the weather conditions fail to improve. After months of preparation, personal and financial sacrifices, that is a prospect the Irish squad do not even want to contemplate.

England, who are due to play their opening match against South Africa in Hyderabad today, are the reigning World Cup champions, but are expecting a strong challenge from the Australians, New Zealand, hosts India and South Africa, who returned to women's international cricket this year after a 25-year absence.

Meanwhile Bangladesh have come in as a late replacement for Canada in Group A, after the Canadians were forced to withdraw from the tournament due to financial constraints.