A member of the groundstaff stands on the covers while rain falls on the ground at Chester-Le-Street and prevented play on the first day of the fourth cricket Test between England and the West Indies, yesterday. - Dellmar

CHESTER-LE-STREET, England(CMC):

Torrential rain forced the cancellation of the opening day in the fourth and final Test between England and West Indies yesterday at the Riverside Ground.

It rained steadily throughout the morning and umpires Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar abandoned any hope of play shortly before the scheduled lunch interval.

The two teams were unable to train outside on Thursday at the Riverside - England's most northerly Test venue - due to heavy rain which has been forecast along with cool temperatures to continue until today.

West Indies experienced similarly taxing conditions - damp, cold weather - in the second Test at Leeds, and crumbled to its heaviest defeat in Tests by an innings and 283 runs which followed a confidence-boosting draw in the first Test at Lord's.

Prepared team

West Indies captain Daren Ganga believes this experience has prepared them for whatever comes over the next few days at the Riverside.

This is the third Test - and biggest to date - to be staged at the Riverside, after easy wins for England against Zimbabwe in 2003 and Bangladesh two years later. West Indies have again found themselves playing to regain some of their lost prestige in the match.

There were signs of improvement in the visitors' performance in the previous Test at Manchester they lost by 60 runs to go 0-2 down in the four-Test series. West Indies are hoping for their first win in 19 Tests.