BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Regional Super50 Championship appeared headed for the law courts after the Barbados Cricket Association announced yesterday it would lodge a formal protest over the exclusion of its team from the semi-finals.
Barbados finished joint fourth on ten points with Combined Campuses and Colleges but missed out on a spot in the final four because they lost to CCC in the head-to-head contest, as stated by the West Indies Cricket Board in the tournament playing conditions.
However, Conde Riley, first vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association, blasted the regulation as “ludicrous”, pointing out that Barbados’ superior net run rate should have been the deciding factor.
“There is clearly an error with regard to the final standings. In any round robin tournament, individual teams will win and lose and the tie-breaker used internationally is net run rate if most wins cannot determine the positions,” Riley, also a WICB director, told the BCA website.
“Hence I have instructed one of the BCA’s attorneys-at-law, Mr. Randall Belgrave QC, who deals with disputes, to act on the BCA’s behalf in this matter.
“It is clear to the BCA that the decision to place Barbados fifth although they have a better net run rate than the team they placed as fourth, is flawed. This is based on all international rules. It is a ludicrous decision.”
According to the tournament playing conditions, if teams end on the same number of points, the determination on who qualifies for the semi-finals is first made on who has secured the most number of wins.
If teams are still equal, the rules state that “the team with the most number of wins over the other team(s) who are equal on points and have the same number of wins” will be used as a determination.
The third criteria is based the team garnering the highest number of bonus points and the final criteria is the team with the highest run rate.
Barbados and CCC both finished with two wins from their six matches but Barbados lost to CCC by 59 runs in their round match at Kensington Oval in February.
Their net run rate, however, was slightly better than CCC’s – ending with -0.013 to the students’ -0.055
The situation was compounded by an announcement that appeared briefly on the WICB’s website following the end of the preliminary round on Sunday night, which said Barbados had indeed qualified for the semi-finals.
