The Australians insisted that Allen didn't qualify to play in the England Deaf team an hour before the first Test began because he wasn't deaf enough.

An audiogram reading showed his average hearing in his better ear – the measure for deafness in sport – was 0.4 of a decibel above the 55dB limit for deaf players, meaning England had to send Allen home.

Allen, 23, who was born deaf due to nerve damage in his ear, said: "I have never been so upset because someone told me my hearing was too good.

"I am disappointed because I have played for England for six years and been measured in that time. While I have always been borderline it has never been a problem before."

The English Cricket Association for the Deaf (ECAD) knew about Allen's results three months ago but selected him anyway.

"I feel let down. ECAD have had my test results for three months so to be told while in the pre-match warm-up I couldn't play was hard to take.

"I can blame the Aussies for gamesmanship for contesting the audiogram so late, but if they knew it didn't meet the standard why didn't ECAD know three months ago?"

Allen's disappointment was compounded by Christleton's Division One home defeat against league leaders Oxton.

He said: "We had too many players in poor form and the defeat rounded off a bad couple of days for me.

"I was told to leave the England team, I bowled badly, and we lost against Oxton.

"Oxton are a good, young side, but on our day I know we are good enough to beat them."

Oxton set a target of 220 before Christleton fell short on 170, with Rick Moore top scoring on 87 alongside Scott Graves (20) and Russ Anderson.

Allen added: "I think we know need to use the remainder of this season to consolidate our place in the division.

"We need to go in to every game we have left thinking we can win, but perhaps we should be thinking about promotion next year rather than this."

CHESTER BOUGHTON HALL'S scheduled Premier Division match at Bowdon was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch.