Bailey's Bay have reportedly lodged an appeal with Bermuda Cricket Board of Control in a last-gasp effort to earn a berth in next year's Camel Cup.

The club had been seeking to have last Sunday's rained out match against PHC rescheduled, but are now appealing on the basis that the points system was/is flawed and contravenes that set out by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

However, it may also be prudent for Bay to investigate whether the correct method for breaking ties was used to determine their final position in the standings.

Bay finished level on 50 points with St. George's and Southampton Rangers, 20 behind Premier League champions St. David's, and five behind second-placed Western Stars, but were judged to have lost out on a top four spot based on their head to head results against Rangers and St. George's, having lost to both in league play.

A mortified Corey Hill, Bay's captain, immediately launched an attack on the current points system, one which affords little recourse to teams incurring no-result decisions, with neither team involved being afforded points.

That directly contravenes the points system set out by the International Cricket Council, which recommends four points be awarded for a win, two points for a tie or no-result, and zero for a loss. Conversely the local league awards five points for a win, while a no-result or loss each results in no points being awarded.

The set-up negatively impacted Bay in that they were denied the opportunity of controlling their own destiny, losing out on the possibility of a victory that would have guaranteed their placement as league runners-up. Instead while they waited in vain for their match to be played at White Hill Field, St. George's and Stars were able to complete victories over Warwick and Somerset Bridge respectively, and Southampton triumphed via default over Police, sealing their places at Bay's expense. Or at least it would seem.

With official results, standings and vital statistics unavailable from the BCBC all season, much of the computations had been left in the hands of the media. And even up until yesterday official stats were still not available from the Board.

However, a letter to Sports Mailbox, written by former Bermuda opening batsman and highly regarded cricket statistician Dexter Smith (see Page 18), indicated there was a possibility that Bay had been unjustly treated.

It is Smith's contention that the points system is fatally flawed as it now stands. Bay, he contends, should not be positioned according to head to head results because the formula is designed to be used only in the instance where there are two teams level on points.

". . . what I do find shocking is the `revelation' that three-way ties are broken by head-to-head records, as opposed to net run rate," wrote Smith. "Unless the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control have made a drastic overhaul of a ruling that is rarely called upon, Hill and his Bailey colleagues may have a case to argue.

"Last season and the past several before it, head-to-head records came into play only when TWO teams were tied on points. Net run rate - the average runs scored per over minus the average runs conceded per over - was used to sort the order of three or more teams."

Smith further asserted that the reason the Board had likely resorted to head to head as the tiebreaker was because they had failed to adequately compile the relevant statistics throughout the season, instead seemingly relying on the print media to produce them as had become custom.

"I would hate to think that the Board did away with net run rate in midstream or, which is more likely, it was never calculated," added Smith, "because that runs the risk of making the Camel Cup qualification process, apart from the unrivalled dominance of St. David's, a fallacy."