Kent’s Friends Life t20 opener abandoned

Kent Spitfires' Friends Life t20 South Group match against Sussex Sharks at the St Lawrence Groundwas abandoned on Tuesday evening without a ball bowled.

Umpires, Rob Bailey and Tim Robinsoncarried out a pitch inspection at 6.45pm during a break in rain. Their opinion was that the outfield and square were waterloggedandthe decision was made to abandoned the match.

This newsfollowsan earlier venue change for this match, which wasannounced on Monday. The match was initially due to be played at The Nevill as part of Kent Cricket's 100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Festival. The match venue was altered to the St Lawrence Ground following severe flooding at The Nevill earlier this week.

Both sides take one point and Sussex hope to get their campaign under way on Thursday against Hampshire at Hove. Kent's opening game is now on Sunday against Surrey at Beckenham.

Kent Cricket Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Clifford commented; "I am desperately sorry that the match has been abandoned. It has been raining all day and our ground staff have workedtirelessly in an effort to prepare the ground for this match.Unfortunately, on this occasion we have been beaten by the weather.

"We will of course issue a full refund or exchange to all of those who have purchased tickets to this match. We hope that the weather improves as we now look towards our next Friends Life t20 match against local rivals Surrey at Beckenham on Sunday, and ahead to the rest of the campaign."

If you have tickets for this match youcan return them for a refund, or exchange themfor tickets toan alternative match. Simply send your tickets with name, address and preference to: Kent County Cricket Club, St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3NZ.

If you paid by card and would like to receive a direct refund back to your card rather than a cheque, please send us details of your card as we do not retain this information at the Club.

* The Club has now announced that they will also accept tickets returned by email – send your e-tickets along with full refund details as above to refunds.kent@ecb.co.uk *

Please note that this Friends Life t20 match will not be rescheduled.

The cut off date for tickets refunds and exchanges in relation to this match is Thursday 12th July 2012.

Photo: Sarah Ansell SarahCanterbury.com