Colly backs abandonment

Sethu Maathavan September 03, 2009

"I absolutely sympathise with the fans who turned up. Obviously there was another full house tonight and people wanted to watch at home," Captain Paul Collingwood said.

"The umpires came up to us and said they think it's unfit for international cricket.

"When you've got a lot of people in the crowd, it's a brave call to make but it's good that they are making those calls."

Collingwood added: "There were other areas [that were wet] as well. The backward point area was very wet as well. But specifically it was that one area in the bowlers' run-ups which is a crucial part of a cricket pitch.

"With the run-ups for the bowlers and the weight that goes through that part of the ground - especially in those take-off areas - the risk was too great.

"I spoke to Michael and both of us said if you're asking your boys to run in 100% then it is going to be pretty dangerous. That's why the umpires made that decision."

"Of course it would. To mark out wide run-ups just to miss and area and stuff like that, it becomes ridiculous," he said.

"Obviously the umpires have made a good decision."

"There are a couple of things there you can do to put on a show for the crowd but the fact is it is an international Twenty20," Australia skipper Michael Clarke said. "You want to play your full-strength team. There's no game I play for Australia where you go out and bowl some full tosses so the crowd get a great spectacle.

"The ground just wasn't fit enough to play. Both teams are disappointed. We've got specialist Twenty20 players who have flown over from Australia to take part in these two games so we really wanted to play."

Clarke added: "I'm 75 kilos and when I put my foot on that area it was very unstable, so I can't imagine that [Ryan] Sidebottom, [Brett] Lee, [Mitchell] Johnson, who are a little bit bigger boys than me, running in to bowl on that.

"They (the umpires) told us they thought the ground was unfit, Paul and I agreed."