The start of the new season at Derby ended in anti-climax and frustration when the Vitality County Championship match between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire was abandoned without a ball bowled.
Weeks of rain leading up to the match followed by more bad weather over the four days left the County Ground outfield saturated and unfit for first-class cricket. Following more rain on Sunday night, umpires Ian Blackwell and Neil Pratt called the match off after an inspection at 9.45am on Monday morning.
It is the first time a County Championship game at Derby has been abandoned without a ball bowled since the match against Nottinghamshire was completely washed out in May 1981.
Both teams take eight points and will now hope for better weather in their next fixtures with Gloucestershire hosting Yorkshire at Bristol and Derbyshire facing Glamorgan at Cardiff on Friday.
Derbyshire head of cricket, Mickey Arthur, said: “It’s incredibly frustrating. We work and work for the start of the season and then we don’t get on so it’s very deflating. Everything about the last four days has been very frustrating. But we kind of had an idea going into this game, you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to walk out there and think you might not get on.
“So we are going to train now and get some good time into the bowlers and get another spell into them. The batters have hit so many balls in the last couple of days indoors and we need them to test their defence outdoors so we are going to do that and give them a good training session.
“We’ll have a day off tomorrow, the boys need to mentally refresh, then come in Wednesday and we’ll train again and then we will be ready to go down at Cardiff “
Gloucestershire head coach, Mark Alleyne, said: “I was only saying to the players today that you normally play all these games in your heads and talk about outcomes and things that might and might not happen but I must admit not playing four days wasn’t on my radar.
“I never really processed that one so it’s really disappointing that we didn’t get out there. But we do know it’s part and parcel of the English season so, as disappointing as it is, it’s not going to derail what we look to do next, we are going to crack on and get ready for the next challenge.
“There are not a lot of positives to take away from not playing. For the players to maintain such a strong work ethic and great attitude even though we weren’t playing is a real takeaway for me, they’ve been brilliant these four days.”