Kent were forced to settle for five points from their opening Specsavers County Championship Division 2 match of the season after a washout at Worcester.

Not a ball was bowled in four days at New Road, despite three of them being bathed in sunshine, and umpires Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth abandoned the match after a noon pitch inspection on Wednesday with the outfield still saturated.

It is the first time New Road has seen a complete washout in the Championship since the flooding of 2007 when successive games – the first of them against Kent - were abandoned before Worcestershire decamped to Kidderminster for later four-day fixtures.

Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, claimed the ground was fit for play up until 24 hours before the scheduled start of the match on Sunday morning.

He said: “Everything was all stations go. This is nothing to do with the river. There is a water table that is incredibly high.

“That is what is affecting us at the moment, the saturation of the whole area.

“Let's make sure we get things right here: when we practiced this ground was looking good, ready for Sunday. Sadly for us, we've had a lot of rain, overnight rain.”

New Road groundsman Tim Packwood explained: "The ground was playable on Friday. If anything, the rain on Saturday afternoon was a lot heavier than anticipated.

"That probably topped it up to the levels where it was touch and go on Monday as to whether the players would get on.

"But there were just areas of the ground where, the best way to describe it, was that it had turned to like a jelly-blancmange. So when you put your foot down, it wasn't actually wet on the surface but the ground was starting to move because of the height of the water table."

Nine years ago Worcestershire admitted to taking a risk in going ahead with the fixture only 12 days after the ground was flooded to a depth of almost 16 feet.

After heavy showers, the match was abandoned on what should have been the third day.

The England & Wales Cricket Board originally said the fixture should be rescheduled but the decision was rescinded following opposition from other counties.