DURHAM boss Geoff Cook is not allowing a gloomy weather forecast to distract his side’s attentions ahead of today’s LV County Championship clash.

The top-versus-bottom visit of Hampshire to the Emirates ICG sees Cook’s league leaders looking to home in on a third title in four years.

Currently six points clear of Lancashire with four games to go, the head coach said: “We obviously have a look at the forecasts but, as a professional, you have to just turn up expecting to play.

“If you make sure your preparations are the best they can be, then what will be will be in terms of the weather on the day. We are not worrying about it too much.” Revealing that the Riverside has been hit by the weekend deluge ahead of today’s encounter, he added: “The whole ground took a bit of a battering, the same as pretty much everywhere else in the region.

“We will just turn up this morning and see what we have to play on, but we are working on the basis that it will be fine unless we find otherwise.”

Durham found themselves deprived of maximum points last time out in the four-day format, when a rain-restricted visit of Nottinghamshire failed to reach a conclusion.

“We certainly had the better of the game, and it was disappointing not to take the full points from it,” said Cook, whose star turns included a first innings knock of 132 from opener Michael Di Venuto. “We probably had the trickiest of the batting conditions on the first day, and we managed to get four batting points.

“That is what we have to do – get ourselves established in the game – and then hopefully we can take it positively from there.”