CHESTER-LE-STREET (England), June 15: The fourth and final Test between England and West Indies was abandoned without a ball being bowled because of torrential rains at the Riverside here on Friday.

Umpires Billy Bowden of New Zealand and Pakistan’s Aleem Dar called the game off for the day following an inspection at 12.30pm local time (1130GMT).

Heavy rain on Friday morning meant the pitch and square were all fully covered, with the toss not taking place as players waited in the pavilion.

A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said the value of refunding what had been expected to be a sell-out 15,600 crowd was 640,000 pounds but that this would be met by their insurance policy.

The match is now set to resume on Saturday at 11.00am (1000GMT).

England have already won the series, going 2-0 up with one to play after their 60-run win in the third Test at Old Trafford completed Monday.

West Indies have won just two of their last 38 Tests.

Meanwhile, the Durham County Cricket Club were philosophical despite the first day of the biggest match they have staged being washed out on Friday.

The sell-out was the third England Test match here and the first against a major cricket nation after Zimbabwe and Bangladesh played Tests there in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

“It's bad luck for us and is not great news financially but it's not dramatic either,” Durham chief executive David Harker said.

“The biggest loss of ticket sales is covered by the ECB, while our corporate punters turned up and still had a few drinks but we will probably have to offer them an (incentive) deal for the future.

“We will lose some revenue from around the ground (catering and merchandise) because people haven't turned up. The bigger loss is losing the opportunity to stage this event, our biggest test match yet. But there's nothing we can do about the great British weather.”—Agencies