YOU can't get away from it, the rain that is. Try as I might to avoid 'talking about the weather' it's impossible when it just keeps raining.

Five out of seven days of Championship cricket have been washed out at New Road thus far as well as the two one-day games which were switched to Kidderminster.

I went past the Parsons Chain factory in Stourport the other day and was reminded of a game played on their ground when Worcestershire scored 350 on the Saturday; it rained all day Sunday and Lancashire were bowled out on a wet pitch on the Monday.

Such arbitrary control of that game by the weather meant that I was always against a return to uncovered pitches whenever it was discussed.

With fewer games being played now and bonus points being of greater significance, time lost in matches assumes a far greater importance. Inevitably the rain, try though it might, will not fall evenly throughout the country. Nor are games played always at the same time any more. Some counties are going to suffer more than others. The effect is not as arbitrary as uncovered pitches, but I wonder how long it will be before there is talk of recovering time by earlier starts and later finishes on the days when play is possible?

The players' complaint was that the rain always fell at the start of the season when you were fresh rather than in August when you really needed a break. I wonder what the Pakistanis have made of it all. A seven Test match summer means an early start for Test cricket and a sense that the Pakistanis are being relegated in importance somewhat. I expect it to be an explosive start to the summer, however, with the first tourists almost better suited to playing over here than on home territory.

Their home pitches during the winter allowed our spinners to exert an influence without making Saqlain Mushtaq devastating. Here, he will still turn it while Waqar, Wasim and company will swing the ball conventionally as much as England's seam attack.

Over-rate penalties are not significant in international cricket, hitting the pocket rather than the result. How many points would Pakistan have been deducted during the closing stages of the third Test in the winter had a points system been in place? Worcestershire have become the first county side to have points deducted for failing to meet the required rate of 16 per hour. The quarter point penalty seems insignificant and we must hope it proves so and that the penalties are applied consistently across the counties. Some umpires were always more prepared to be sympathetic than others.

As a regulation, it is part of an increasing attempt to shape the game through artificial means. I wonder when the first penalty runs will be added or deducted for time wasting or distracting the batsman?

I suspect that we will hear little of these measures, but I think the principle is good of actually giving the rules and thus the umpires some 'teeth' when it comes to dealing with such issues. Worcestershire travel to Gloucestershire at the end of the week bringing back memories of unfavourable clashes with the rulemakers last year. Last year's Championship match in Bristol was going Worcestershire's way till, guess what, the rain intervened.

We could do with four fine days and a good result to get things moving again.