Derek Pringle takes a look at how a surfeit of rain can set cricket tongues wagging and players’ thirsts raging

Essex are still smarting from their washed-out County Championship match at Headingley where not even the thought of bowling a ball, let alone sending one down, came into the reckoning due to a saturated outfield. The upshot was four frustrating days spent watching paint, but not the ground, dry, for which both teams earned five points, the amount awarded to teams for a draw.
The worry for Essex, as with all teams in Division One, is that with two sides relegated from ...