Adjust font size:
    CHESTER-LE-STREET, England -- Rain washed out the first day of the fourth and final Test between England and West Indies at Chester-le-Street. Play was called off for the day at the Riverside after an 11.30GMT inspection by umpires Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar. The pitch and square were fully covered as heavy rain fell on Friday morning and the captains did not toss up. A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board said that they would be refunding £640,000 ($1,260,544 ) to 15,600 spectators who would have made up a sellout crowd. This would be covered by insurance. It was the biggest game to be staged at the ground, which previously hosted two England Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. "It's bad luck for us and is not great news financially but it's not dramatic either," Durham chief executive David Harker said. "The biggest loss of ticket sales is covered by the ECB, while our corporate punters turned up and still had a few drinks but we will probably have to offer them an (incentive) deal for the future. "We will lose some revenue from around the ground (catering and merchandise) because people haven't turned up. "The bigger loss is losing the opportunity to stage this event, our biggest test match yet, but there's nothing we can do about the great British weather." England lead the series 2-0 against a West Indies side that have won only two of their last 38 Test matches. |
Get up-to-the minute news from CNNCNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more. |
A desolate scene at Chester-le-Street as the square remains covered.
| © 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
 |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video.