Northamptonshire suffered their first Championship washout since 1981 as not a ball could be bowled in their fixture against Derbyshire at Chesterfield.

The umpires decided - ahead of the scheduled starting time on Wednesday - that no play was possible because of the sodden run-ups, and later the whole match was officially abandoned after a further inspection by umpires, captain and coaches.

Northamptonshire captain Alex Wakely said: "It's one of the most bizarre games of cricket I've ever been involved in.

"It's a great ground and great place to play cricket but unfortunately the weather had taken its toll from the previous week with the heavy rain completely saturating the run-ups, and they're still unstable.

"I think if you bowled on them for four or five overs you would be churning up mud. We got bowlers to run in but they didn't feel confident and with our injury issues we had to be pretty careful.

"But it wasn't our decision, the umpires deemed it unfit and although it's frustrating, there's nothing we can do about it."