WORCESTERSHIRE are facing a hefty financial loss after their Twenty20 Cup home games were scuppered by flooding.

The match with local rivals Warwickshire Bears has been washed out and, with New Road still under several feet of water, it is unlikely Worcestershire will be able to play any of their Twenty20 games on home soil.

It is the first time the County's pitch has flooded during the season since May 31, 1969, when a three-day game had to be switched to Dudley.

However, Worcestershire chief executive Mark Newton admits a similar move would be difficult due to the number of Twenty20 fans that would need to be accommodated and a lack of time to prepare a wicket elsewhere.

New Road officials are now in discussions with neighbouring counties about the possibility of switching venues to fulfil their remaining fixtures in the competition.

Newton said: "The square flooded yesterday and obviously the War-wickshire game has been called off.

"The problem is that at such short notice ECB regulations say you can only switch a fixture to another ground in your county. We don't think this will be possible - there is not enough notice to prepare a wicket among other things.

"Our rain check policy applies for all tickets we have sold, whereby people can reclaim their ticket for any other match during the season, except in the Twenty20.

"When the ground floods, all we can do is to deal with it. It has been brought about by an extraordinary set of circumstances. I have never seen the water come across the pitch as quickly as it did yesterday.

"Everyone has worked very hard to retrieve whatever we can. Nor-mally we can plan for this type of thing during the autumn, but we have had just four hours to salvage as much as possible."

Worcestershire commercial manager and former all-rounder David Leatherdale added that it will take some time to calculate the full cost of the flooding.

He said: "We will have to sit down and look at the financial implications in more detail. It is going to be very difficult because the flood has come at a busy time with four sold-out Twenty20 games which also included hospitality packages.

"The amount of money will be hefty, but it is impossible to put a figure on it as we have not come across anything like this before."

New Road is notorious for being flooded during the winter months and was covered four times from last October to March which cost tens of thousands of pounds in clearing and cleansing the ground.