Even the normal quip about scuba gear and deep sea diving equipment is wearing thin toward the end of a second rain-sodden week.
``What we need a serious long net on a dry field with some sun on our backs to give everyone a chance,'' the South African A team coach said yesterday.
``The guys are desperately short of match practice and this tour is about bringing through emerging talent. They haven't had a chance to do anything,'' he added.
So far all that has been managed on this trip are 37 overs of play, or one and a half sessions out of a possible 15 spread over two matches. The first, against the Board President's XI at the Singhalese Sports Club was finally abandoned as a lost cause on Monday.
This particular venture into the centre of the island is certain to end with the same fate as that of the other South African sides which have visited Kandy. The first, in 1993, was a one-day limited-overs international and abandoned mid-afternoon.
Play was called off at 1pm local time yesterday with Sri Lanka A marooned on 136 for two, at which point the rain suddenly stopped and the sun broke through the heavy layer of wet cloud. All very ironic for the game, as a contest, has already been buried.
In 1995 the South African under-24s bowled around 40 overs to Sri Lanka u-24 during the first two days of yet another rain-affected game. That match was in late August and the last two days were rained off with the outfield already heavily affected.
As it is the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) have been heavily criticised for organising an ODI tournament in June, with a number of matches rained off. New Zealand's games were either rainaffected or washed out. Their net run rate for the tournament was calculated on two out of a possible six innings and they failed to qualify ahead of Sri Lanka or India who manner to complete four matches.
A world wide CricInfo survey a month ago and which drew more than a million responses, condemned the organisers for staging a tournament in the middle of the monsoon season.
South Africa are due to tour here in August-September 2000, which say locals is also a period fraught with monsoon problems unless the tour is carefully planned, and well in advance.
Regions such as Kandy fall in the North-west monsoon which is known as the wet area while Kurunegala, where the second unofficial test is being played from next Saturday, is the drier North-east.
Although there is land available east of Kandy on the way to Victoria Dam, plans to build a second Asgiriya Stadium, are at this stage long term. Which means South Africa will play one of the five planned ODIs and not one of the three tests in this capital of the rain jungle.
Certainly future tours of the island should not include July or early August in there schedule. The best touring months are said to be April/May.
This report is supported by Lanka Internet Services Ltd