THERE are lies, damned lies and weather forecasts.

What other conclusion are we to draw? The only thing you can be sure of when you consult a forecast to see what the prospects of play are for the following day is that the complete opposite of what is predicted is equally likely to happen.

The weather has long since been believed to be the national obsession of the British and that is especially true for cricket followers, whose sport is more vulnerable than most to the climate.

Barely a day will go by when covering cricket without someone casting a cloud by suggesting that not one single ball is likely to be bowled two or three days hence because they have read that a monsoon is on the way.

Occasionally, of course, they are right but more often than not they have been hopelessly misled.

Conversely, only a fool would set off to the cricket in vest and shorts on the word of some smiley woman on TV (why do they all seem to be pregnant?) when experience says the day will end in hail and thunder.

Personally, I long since stopped consulting the forecasts.

For all the millions of pounds worth of satellite technology they have available, we are drawn inevitably to the opinion that they are still only guessing.

If you want a more reliable forecast, hang a pine cone outside your door or ask granny if her bunions are playing up.

However, for the sake of scientific research, I will undertake to gauge the success rate of our so-called weather experts.

For each day's play in the remaining month of the season, I will consult and log the forecast for the following 24 hours and rate the accuracy of the results. For the purpose of consistency, I will use the BBC on-line forecast, working on the old maxim that if you cannot trust the BBC, who can you trust?

The data will be processed and recounted in these columns at the end of the campaign.