Game goes ahead for the fans, says Warwickshire coach

Warwickshire coach Ashley Giles says that the decision to re-arrange his team's Twenty20 Cup quarter-final against holders Kent for this evening was crucial in the bid to repair English cricket's tarnished reputation.

Yesterday's torrential rain caused the match to be postponed in mid-afternoon, as umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Rob Bailey decided that play was impossible on a saturated Edgbaston outfield. The last-eight clash will start, weather permitting, at 5pm.

Cricket suffered a PR disaster at the Riverside on Monday, when thousands of fans were belatedly told the Durham-Yorkshire match was off because of the row over Azeem Rafiq's ineligibility.

Now Giles says fans should have the chance to watch the delayed contest as soon as possible, with 6,000 tickets sold in advance by Warwickshire.

'You have to look after the spectators,' said Giles. 'The competition has taken a bit of a battering in the last week and we need to look after the game. We want to play in front of a crowd with a good atmosphere.'

The start time leaves Kent facing a mad dash back home to prepare for a Championship match against Yorkshire at Canterbury the following morning.

But coach Graham Ford accepted the situation, saying: 'A lot of this happens on the county circuit and we just have to respond to it. We won't get back from Birmingham until the early hours of the morning. It's going to be tough for the boys but there's no point complaining.'

If bad weather intervenes again, the counties will be confronted by the prospect of a bowl-out in the indoor nets to decide who progresses to finals day at the Rose Bowl.

That would not be a popular conclusion, with Giles saying: 'Bowling at a stump is not the way any of us would want this tie to be decided.'