No play at Kandy

The opening day's play of the second match of the two-Test series at Kandy was abandoned without a ball being bowled after heavy overnight rain left large areas of the outfield saturated.

The umpires, Daryl Harper and Simon Taufel, needed just five minutes walking around the muddy ground to decide that, despite cloudleess skies and a hot sun, there was no way that play could be started during the day.

"The pitch looks good but the outfield has simply taken too much water," said Harper. "We are dealing with international cricket here and to be honest you could not even contemplate playing a club game on this."

The prospects of play later in the Test are also slim with the prevailing weather conditions. Monsoon rains have poured down nearly every evening since the Sinhalese New Year three weeks ago.

"Although the bad areas may dry in the day, if it rains again later in the day we will probably go back to base one tomorrow," said Harper.