THE third day of the final Test was washed out. Not a ball has been bowled since play finished early on Friday and there have been only 45 overs in all. Rain has fallen almost incessantly, quagmiring the playing area, and although it stopped long enough for the captains Nasser Hussain and Hansie Cronje to go to the ground and squelch around, it was apparent that neither wanted a start. A downpour arrived on cue and spared them a decision. The washout has cost the Northern Cricket Union dearly, just as it did four years ago when the inaugural Test at Centurion was abandoned after two days. “We will be losing R800000 on the bottom line against a projected profit of R1,6-million,” said the NCU president David Harrison on Sunday. “It is a catastrophe and it will mean that some of our development programmes will have to be cut back.”