County Championship match between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire abandoned

The County Championship match between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire was abandoned without a ball bowled with no play possible across four days due to a wet outfield.

Derbyshire will be next in action against Glamorgan starting on Friday.

“Day Four of the fixture against Gloucestershire was abandoned at 9:45 am after umpires inspections, due to a wet outfield. Derbyshire are next in action against Glamorgan, starting on Friday 12 April,” Derbyshire said in an official statement on Monday.

Rainfall for weeks prior to the game and additional inclement weather during the four days rendered the outfield of County Ground soaked and unsuitable for first-class cricket. After an inspection at 9.45 a.m. on Monday morning, umpires Ian Blackwell and Neil Pratt decided to call off the game due to further rain on Sunday night.

This is the first time since the match against Nottinghamshire washed out in May 1981 that a County Championship game at Derby has been called off without a ball being bowled.
Both teams finished with eight points and will now hope for better weather for their next games, which are on Friday in Derbyshire’s Cardiff match against Glamorgan and on Saturday in Gloucestershire’s Bristol match against Yorkshire.

“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,” Derbyshire head of cricket, Mickey Arthur, said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“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,” he added.

“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,” Gloucestershire head coach, Mark Alleyne said.

“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,” Alleyne added.

“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,” the Gloucestershire head coach said.