Heavy rain affects State Shield games

The State Shield game between Auckland and Canterbury was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to heavy rain around Eden Park's Outer Oval. The match had been built up by the Auckland Association as a tsunami relief fund match but it never looked like getting started.

As a result of the abandonment the Auckland side, which has been such a top performer in the four-day competition, ended the first half of the State Shield without a win. The two other games to complete the fifth round of matches are scheduled to be played on Sunday.

As cricketers around the country have honed their card-playing skills, caught on the books they had put aside to read or taken up a more exciting game, like chess, the rain has once again marred matches.

Long-time followers of the game cannot remember a more disruptive weather influence in their memories. The good news for the Sri Lankans who went home as a result of the tsunami is that they were lucky they didn't stay to play as they may well have ended up playing on weather-affected strips like those India had to play on two summers ago.