The wisdom of scheduling a cricket tour midway through Kenya’s rainy season came under further scrutiny yesterday as Bermuda’s national team players arrived in the port of Mombasa to be greeted by even wetter conditions than they left behind in Nairobi.

Torrential rain swept across this Indian Ocean coastal city, an hour’s flight to the south of the capital, throughout the day, and according to locals this same weather pattern has persisted for the last two weeks.

At the ramshackle Mombasa Sports Club, a short walk away from the team’s hotel in as squalid a city centre as you’re likely to find anywhere in the world, areas of the ground were under inches of water. The club is scheduled to host three one-day matches between Kenya and Bermuda, the first tomorrow, but with more heavy showers forecast, chances that groundstaff could prepare a surface fit for international cricket would appear slim.

An official at the club told The Royal Gazette <$>that a full day of sunshine today would enable the grass, two or three inches high in some parts of the outfield, to be cut and the wicket to be properly prepared.

But if the weather forecast proves accurate, there seems little hope of any cricket being played either tomorrow or Sunday. A third game is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Back at the Royal Court Hotel, where Bermuda’s players arrived in mid-afternoon, having had their travel plans changed at the 11th hour — they had been due to leave Nairobi on an early morning flight — there were rumblings over whether it made sense to persevere with the Kenya leg of this five-week tour.

Watching as huge puddles in the pot-holed city streets grew deeper and wider, some players openly suggested that the three-match series be abandoned and the team instead fly directly to South Africa where games might be able to be arranged against top club sides.

As the schedule stands now, Bermuda will remain in Mombasa until next Wednesday when they will fly, via Nairobi, to Johannesburg and then travel by road to the High Performance Cricket Academy in Pretoria.

Badly in need of match practice, having lost the final two days of their drawn four-day Intercontinental Cup game against Kenya to rain, the team aren’t scheduled to play again following the three one-dayers until November 21 when they will meet Holland in another four-day cup game.

Last night as the rain continued to pour down there seemed little hope that the players would be able to train outside today, let alone play tomorrow.

Should the weather dramatically improve, coach Gus Logie is expected to use all of his 15-man squad in the three one-dayers.

He’s already confirmed that Clay Smith, who suffered a hamstring injury on the opening day of the Intercontintental Cup match, will sit out the first one-dayer and quite possibly the second, while one-day skipper Irving Romaine (groin) and Kevin Hurdle (shoulder) are expected to be passed fit to play.

Youngsters Malachi Jones and Rodney Trott, who were also left out of the four-day team, are likely to play some part in the one-day series, weather permitting, although Logie won’t name his side until later today.