Tuesday's opening match, a fund-raiser at Randjesfontein, had already been cancelled owing to the team's late arrival from their tangle with the West Indies Board at Heathrow. Then Jimmy Adams suffered a serious hand injury on the flight from London, and then this downpour, which flooded out the Soweto Cricket Oval. Even Nelson Mandela's scheduled visit was washed out.
The weather was cool and cloudy when the West Indies arrived at this township turned city in the morning, knowing that they had lost Adams for at least a month. He sliced two tendons in his right hand when his knife slipped cutting food during the flight to Johannesburg on Monday night. The damage was serious enough for Clive Lloyd, the tour manager, to consider sending him back home to Jamaica.
Brian Lara concentrates on the ball during friendly game in Soweto The loss of Adams is a definite setback to the tour because he had proved himself a stabilising influence on the field as a left-handed batsman and as a man of character and integrity off it, who impressed the negotiators during the five-day crisis at Heathrow.
The West Indians' late arrival for their first senior Test series in South Africa, their date with history, at least whipped up the sort of media interest boxing promoters would die for. Even The Sowetan, usually indifferent to cricket, carried a long article about Brian Lara's ``sorry we're late'' apology on arrival. Their leading sportswriter, Meshack Motloung, covering yesterday's play, admitted despondently: ``My children know more about cricket than I do.''
Soweto's cricket scene has become one of the United Cricket Board's planks in accessing the black community to cricket. The players enjoyed an ambitious month's tour of England, Wales and Ireland in 1995 and their ground has matured well, with its ochre-coloured pavilion and high terracing.
The razor-wire perimeter fencing was the only link left with a difficult past and yesterday the turf square provided Lara with batting practice against a callow Gauteng XI attack, his 65 taking only 60 balls.
The occasion was geared towards schoolchildren, hundreds attending with lively interest while a youthful brass brand's rendition of Life is Life and Cecilia added to a special atmosphere. Just as the face painters were getting into their stride and the Mandela prepar- ations were humming, thunder and lightning swept away the afternoon.
The West Indies had an opportunity to bat for 47 overs, televised on a cable channel, and they scored 258 for seven after losing three early wickets. Lara and Darren Ganga, 19, his right-handed team-mate from Trinidad, put on 96 at almost a run a ball before Carl Hooper added 60 not out off 70 balls.
None of this was very reassuring for the West Indians, who had gone more than two weeks without playing since the one-day tournament in Bangladesh. Their first four-day game in South Africa, against Griqualand West, starts in Kimberley on Saturday, with the first Test in Johannesburg looming two weeks away, on Nov 26-30.
Lloyd said: ``We're not too worried yet but we have to get ourselves match fit before the Test. We must play as much as possible.''
The announcement yesterday of a team sponsor - Seagram South Africa - for the three-month tour was a morale-booster after no support had seemed likely a couple of months ago. David Richardson, the former South Africa wicketkeeper, said he had almost given up the task of finding someone until by chance his promotions company made contact a week ago with Spiced Gold, a rum aperitif - which is made in Jamaica.
The players' previous sponsor, the brewers Kingfisher, had long since pulled out and Richardson said: ``I didn't think I'd find anyone willing to sponsor a team opposing South Africa.''
All the players in the party were ordered not to comment on last weekend's Heathrow rebellion led by Lara and Hooper, though the media continued to ask the questions. Lloyd said: ``We've got to put the past behind us and concentrate on the tour. Both parties, the West Indies Board and the players, have learnt something from last weekend and we've tried to get everything right.''
Whether or not the United Cricket Board of South Africa, who met the Heathrow hotel bills on behalf of the players, running into several thousand pounds, will be able, as they hope, to recoup a proportion from the West Indies Board remains to be seen.