Scotland's big day washed out

Adam Gilchrist signs autographs for the fans at a very wet Edinburgh © Getty Images

Scotland's most anticipated match since the 1999 World Cup was abandoned with no play possible due to persistent rain.

Play was scheduled to begin at 3.45pm in what would have been a 20-over contest, but the wet weather resumed almost as soon as the announcement was made to the capacity crowd of 4,500. Within minutes it became clear they would not be able to start. The match had been sold out for months, and organisers said they could have shifted the tickets three times over.

Ricky Ponting was looking forward to the match and the carnival atmosphere. "The last two weeks have been physically and mentally tough," he said, "so to have a few days away would have been great for us."

"We won't lose anything financially, the biggest loss for us was not having the game played and the exposure on TV," Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland's chief executive, told the BBC. "The loss for us was the missed opportunity to play against Australia." He hoped that matches with next summer's tourists Pakistan and Sri Lanka could be organised.

The game was to be the BBC's first cricket broadcast for six years, and the first Scottish match outside the World Cup to be televised live. Australia have one further warm-up game, against Northamptonshire on Saturday, before the crucial fourth Test starts on August 25.