THE head of the England and Wales Cricket Board last night expressed sympathy for Durham’s plight after the second day of the second Test between England and West Indies was abandoned without a ball being bowled, but defended the decision to play Test cricket at Riverside in mid- May.

Play was finally abandoned at around 4pm yesterday after persistent rainfall prevented England’s batsmen from adding to their overnight total of 302-2.

The washout completed a miserable two days for Durham after Thursday’s opening day was blighted by the sight of more than 7,000 empty seats at a barely quarter- full Riverside.

Having spent almost £3m last winter to upgrade the facilities at their Chester-le- Street venue, Durham have repeatedly pressed the ECB for the right to host more Test cricket. Their case has been somewhat undermined by the events of the last 48 hours, but ECB chief executive David Collier admits the county have been extremely unfortunate.

“I feel for Durham in that they have not had the luck of the weather,” said Collier. “I think that is always the danger for the English summer. It can happen at the end of the season or in the middle of the season.

“I think they have done well in terms of the development of the ground. Clearly they could build an audience here for games. I think they have picked up a much better game than they would have had had it been Zimbabwe (who were England’s scheduled opponents for this week’s match before they were expelled from Test cricket last year).”

Former Durham and England all-rounder Ian Botham has led the criticism that has been hurled in the ECB’s direction, blaming a combination of Riverside’s northerly location, the credit crunch and a clash with the denouement of the football season for a dispiriting two days.

With West Indies captain Chris Gayle having questioned the long-term future of Test cricket at the start of the week, a number of commentators have claimed that the events of the last 48 hours have damaged the status of the five-day game.

Collier, however, insists the ECB were right to host the current two-Test series, and feels he would have been accused of giving Australia a helping hand to retain the Ashes if he had not organised a warm-up series at the start of the summer.

“I don’t think playing these Test matches has done harm to Test cricket,” he said. “We think there is a cricketing argument that you want to play matches.

“If we hadn’t played, I could see a scenario where people would have said, ‘Hang on a minute, you’re going into an Ashes series and although you have played ICC Twenty20, you had two months at the start of the season and you played no five-day cricket’.

“We believe Test cricket is very much the pinnacle. We have said that, we’re on record as saying that and we will continue to say that.

“We believe very strongly that an Ashes summer is a major summer for us and I think we would have been criticised had we not had any preparation for the England team, particularly at a time where a number of young players are starting to establish themselves in the side.”

Collier also defended the current system whereby counties are forced to bid for the right to host Test matches, a procedure that is forcing the likes of Durham to make ever-higher payments to retain a place on the Test schedule.

Durham bid £500,000 to secure this week’s match – Glamorgan, with the assistance of the Welsh Assembly, paid £3m for the right to stage the opening Ashes Test against Australia in early July – and the county must recoup the bulk of that money through ticket sales.

As a result, Durham officials felt unable to lower the minimum price for an adult ticket for this week’s Test below the £30 mark.

“We have to bid high because if we don’t, we’ll end up with nothing and we can’t afford to miss out on a game when we’re spending millions developing the ground,” said Durham chief executive David Harker.

“We set the prices for this game to sustain a bid of half a million quid. We’ve got to get that money back from somewhere.”

While it might be a financial necessity, Durham’s stance has nevertheless driven down attendances, and there is a fear that the sight of row upon row of empty seats will dissuade the ECB from awarding future Tests to the North-East.

Paul Collingwood hopes that does not happen, and the Durham all-rounder has mounted a passionate defence of his home ground despite Thursday’s disappointing first-day crowd.

More than 10,000 tickets have been sold for today’s play, a fact Collingwood claims confirms the North- East’s passion for Test cricket “It would be great to see the ground three-quarters full all the time,” he said. “But this is the North-East and times are hard at the moment. I’m not saying the North-East is suffering more than anywhere else, but with the weather the way it was (on Thursday), there was always going to be a few empty seats. Saturday is supposed to be a sell-out though, and that’s a great achievement. Let’s hope the weather stays fine.”

Scoreboard

SECOND npower TEST MATCH

England v West Indies At Riverside

England Won Toss

England First Innings No play Friday due to rain

Close

A J Strauss c Ramdin b Gayle ............26

A N Cook not out .............................126

R S Bopara b Baker ..........................108

J M Anderson not out ..........................4

Extras (b9 lb3 w6 nb20 pens 0) ...........................38

Total 2 wkts (90 overs) .......302

Fall: 1-69 2-282 To Bat: K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, M J Prior, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad, G P Swann, G Onions Bowling: Taylor 14-1-42-0. Edwards 14- 0-58-0. Baker 19-3-60-1. Gayle 12-2-28-1. Benn 22-6-78-0. Simmons 9-0-24-0.