The eccentric behaviour of star cricketer Chris Douglas has again come to the fore, and this time the cost may be his place in the Somerset Cup Match team.

The latest act of misconduct from the PHC and Bermuda opening batter occurred during the first round of the Western Counties Cup against Somerset Bridge last Saturday, his first appearance after a four-match suspension.

Douglas was adjudged out leg-before to the bowling of Kamau Leverock after scoring just two runs, and then picked up the match ball and put it in his pocket before marching off towards the sidelines.

Before he could get too far, and be deemed guilty of bringing the match into disrepute, Douglas was met near the 30-yard circle by coach Cal Waldron and the ball was returned with no disruption in play.

It is not known if the umpires have included the incident in their report, although the act was not dissimilar to what took place at Devonshire Recreation Club on June 2 when Douglas removed the stumps upon being given out and walked off the ground with them.

Whether or not Douglas lands in the dock for this latest misdemeanour, his place in the Annual Classic is looking ever tenuous.

Alex Dore, who starred at the Bermuda Smash Invitational and has reportedly enjoyed a productive season in Canada, is being tabbed by many as a ready-made replacement.

Douglas almost lost his Cup Match place last year but survived on a technicality in which his prospects as a guest player for St David’s in the Eastern Counties counted bizarrely towards the suspension handed out when he was a Somerset club player.

The transgressions undermine the Cup Match contributions of a player who in combination with new captain Terryn Fray has proved a thorn in the side of St George’s for most of the past decade — the latest example being the majestic century in 2021 that spurred the holders to a ten-wicket triumph at Wellington Oval.

But with Dore primed as a like-for-like replacement — a left-hander to retain the left-right combination that Somerset prefer at the top of the order, experience from the BSI of batting in partnership with Fray, younger and with less emotional baggage — Douglas’s days in the Annual Classic may be numbered.

Suspension or no suspension.