Yesterday, the cricketers of Ireland and Bangladesh had everything in common with their Test colleagues at Edgbaston. That is to say, they had nothing to do all day but look at the downpours of rain; like the first Test between England and South Africa, yesterday's projected 60-overs one-day match at Eglinton was abandoned by lunch-time.

No disrespect to the tidy little village and its inhabitants, but it's not exactly the ideal place in which to spend a long and tedious day during which the drenching Irish summer rain and drizzle poured from early morning until late afternoon. By lunch, it was decided to long-finger a decision on today's match; last evening, however, Mike Hendrick and Gordon Greenidge inspected the pitch, with the ground staff of the Eglinton club.

"We've decided to give it another chance", said Hendrick afterwards. "We'll have another look at 7.30 or so in the morning and make a final decision then".

Yesterday morning, the ground staff worked on the area surrounding the well-covered track. Last evening, as Hendrick and Greenidge made their inspection, they were still at it, so if - as is very likely - today's match is also called off, it certainly won't be for lack of trying.

Yesterday afternoon Greenidge took his squad for a work-out in the gym of a nearby hotel, while at another venue, Hendrick's players got in some indoor work.

Meanwhile, Warwickshire are to open an investigation into claims of unnecessary violence by stewards employed for crowd control purposes during the Test after receiving a string of complaints.

A number of scuffles broke out on the Rea Bank Stand, the cheaper public seats, on Saturday which resulted in 63 people being ejected.

But a radio phone-in reported a steady stream of callers protesting about the stewards' behaviour.