TORRENTIAL rain washed out yesterday's exhibition match involving several of the leading players in this week's Desert Classic in Dubai.

The nine-hole greensomes match on the Emirates Course was to have involved defending champion Fred Couples, leading Europeans Colin Montgomerie, Ian Woosnam, Seve Ballesteros and Costantino Rocca and young Indian professional Jeev Singh.

Today's pro-am competition was also cancelled, but organisers said they hoped the course would be available for practice later in the day and that the weather would improve for the tournament proper, which starts tomorrow.

The area, with an average annual rainfall of 89 millimetres, has been drenched by almost 60 millimetres in the last two days.