Rain denies Indians practice

Cometh the Indian team, cometh the rain.

The south-west monsoon that had held itself back all through three weeks of the Sri Lanka-South Africa cricket Test series finally lashed Colombo, throwing a spanner in the teams' practice plans ahead of the tri-series, beginning on Monday.

The Indian team, which arrived on Thursday night, had to shelve their plan of evening nets while South Africa and the hosts had their respective warm-up matches cancelled.

The African team, which lost the two-Test series 2-0, was to play a warm-up limited-overs game against a second rung Sri Lankan team. The Sri Lankan seniors were to play a Twenty-20 match between themselves in the evening.

The rain that started early last evening continued through the night and well into the morning on Friday.

The Indian cricketers spent time relaxing in the swimming pool and a couple of them also ventured out for a stroll on the sidewalk running parallel to the shoreline opposite the team hotel, enjoying the sight of waves crashing under a severely overcast sky.

The downpour though stopped by noon and roads were beginning to dry up.

The South African team has moved out of Hotel Taj Samudra, where they had been housed during the Test series, apparently to escape the security hassles that come with the Indian team.

They checked out and moved to Hotel Cinnamon on Thursday afternoon, well before Rahul Dravid and Co. checked into the Taj.