After the sublime, the ridiculous

10.55am So, that, I'm afraid, is that. There will be no more play on the first day in Antigua, and conceivably no more play in this match at all. What on earth do you make of this farce? Send us your feedback.

10.49am This is a sensation. Hurst has said that they will look into all options, maybe even the relocation of the match to another venue ... conceivably the venerable ARG in St John's. "I'm not sure what those options are, maybe extending the time for the Test and looking at another venue, maybe back-to-back Tests in Barbados. But for today, this ground is unfit for play."

10.48am Alan Hurst, the match referee, confirms that play has been abandoned for the day. "The bowlers have deemed the run-ups to be a safety hazard," says Hurst. "Everyone felt, including the umpires that it would be okay. It would have been jumping the gun to call it off before play."

10.47am For a moment it looked as those the batsmen were leaving the field ... and now, after stopping for a chat, the West Indians are joining them.

10.45am Andrew McGlashan in the press box confirms the suspicion we are getting from the TV pictures. "The feeling is growing that this could be called off," he says. "Extraordinary scenes as a mid-pitch discussion decides the future of this match." Meanwhile, up in the commentary booth, Sir Viv himself is talking animatedly about the farcical scenes. This ground does not deserve to bear his great name.

10.42am I am beginning to fear that we are about to have our second aborted Test match. Sabina Park lasted 10.1 overs before the game was called off. This one is in serious danger of setting a new record.

10.40am Slow hand-clapping now, as this delay extends into its fifth minute. Strauss and Gayle are in deep discussion, just as Atherton and Lara were in 1997-98, and now the match referee, Alan Hurst, is on his way to the middle to join the deliberations.

Yet another aborted run-up, and Edwards flings the ball away in disgust. This is becoming a very serious issue indeed ... Edwards and Gayle are now in discussion with the umpires.

Shades of Sabina Park 1997-98 are in the air here. That was dangerous to batsmen, this is just hopeless for bowlers. There's nothing that Edwards can do about it. He is an elite athlete, who expects, at the very least, to be able to sprint to the crease without fearing that the ground beneath his ankle is going to give way beneath him

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Sabina Park, 1993-94: When that match was abandoned after 10.1 overs (oh, happy days when a Test lasted that long), they decided to play back-to-back Tests in Trinidad, where England lost the first and won the second. Will Barbados be hosting 10 days of Test cricket over the next fortnight? Will the Rec in St John's regain its Test status? Will Sir Allen Stanford take the chance to re-establish himself as the saviour of Caribbean cricket and offer up his own ground? You can't help feeling the ICC have reaped what they have sowed: they decided not to use the Rec for the World Cup, instead building this new stadium which has so far staged, ooh, one Test. Modernisation, eh?

What chances of play tomorrow? Hurst says options will be talked about. But he doesn't know what the options are. He then goes on to speculate about shifting the venue, possibly playing back-to-back matches in Barbados.

Hurst says there was a chance in advance that the conditions might have been OK. That's reassuring!

Alan Hurst, the match referee, confirms that the bowlers are having trouble with their footholds. He says the bowlers have deemed it "dangerous". The decision is that play has been abandoned for the day. Not for the next five days, note. But for the day. What. A. Farce.

Sand-gate latest: The players are leaving the field!

More farce: "Cricinfo's man on the spot reports that during the break the fire alarm in the press box went off. They couldn't turn it off because the instructions were all in Chinese," says Sunil X. Priceless.

The third Test starts in Barbados on February 26, so surely there would be time to reschedule this game. But we're jumping the gun. As things stand, this Test has not been called off. How much longer we can say that is another matter, and the slow handclaps from the England spectators who have spent several hundred of their increasingly unvaluable pounds to be here tell their own story.

This is utterly farcical. Out comes the match referee Alan Hurst to chat to the interested parties. I really don't see how they can resolve this situation. There is quite simply not enough grass on the outfield. That in itself is not necessarily a problem, but it becomes one when all the gaps are plugged with sand. I mean, what were they thinking? And if this Test is called off, will they replay it elsewhere? A mischievous thought: how about the Stanford Cricket Ground?

1.4 overs: England 7-0 (Strauss 6, Cook 1) I was about to say 'Edwards resumes the attack after a 25-minute break', only for Fidel to reach the end of his run-up and decide against it. He's at the sandier of the two ends, remember, as Cook deflects his first post-break ball to long leg for a single. And then Edwards pulls up again before turning to umpire Hill and shaking his head. The umpire strides over to the offending area and pats it with his foot. It's shocking, it really is. Every time a player lands a size 11 in it, it turns into a mini sandpit. And now Edwards pulls up again. We could be looking at a fiasco to rank with Sabina Park 1993-94 here. Both umpires and five or six West Indians, including the captain Chris Gayle, are crowded round the dodgy patch and wondering what to do. But what can they do? Grass takes time to grow. Now Harper and Hill are talking to Strauss, with Gayle in attendance. I'll keep you posted.