Cleveland are to appeal the decision to strip them of the Eastern Counties Cup.

In a statement released this afternoon by the Eastern Counties Cricket Association, Diallo Rabain, the ECCA secretary, confirmed the move to take the trophy away from Cleveland and the club’s response to that.

The ECCA held an emergency meeting on Sunday evening with club representatives when a vote of 9-5 came back in favour of Cleveland being stripped of the cup following Saturday’s highly contentious game against Bailey’s Bay at Lord’s.

“The ECCA is continuing its deliberations into the game held on July 18, 2015 between champions Cleveland County Cricket Club and challengers Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club,” the ECCA statement reads.

“An emergency meeting of the associates in which the game manager’s report was presented for consideration was held on July 19, 2015. As a result, a motion was presented and the resultant vote was to award Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club the Eastern County Trophy.

“Cleveland County Cricket Club expressed their desire to, and will be allowed to, appeal the decision. A final decision to award the Eastern County Cup will be made once the appeal process has been completed.

“Further announcements on the Eastern County Trophy presentation will be made once the appeal process has been completed.”

Saturday’s game ended in a draw after umpires pulled the stumps at 7.20pm with Bay one run short of victory.

Earlier in the game Cleveland’s players had threatened to walk off the field after a number of umpiring decisions went against them.

The match was held up for some 40 minutes before officials intervened, but the time lost was not added on to the Bay innings. Cleveland had employed time-delaying tactics to reduce the time Bay had to get the runs before the scheduled 7.20 finish time. It is also understood that threatening behaviour was directed at the umpires by some Cleveland players during the afternoon session.

No official word has been received from the ECCA, their only statement into the matter came on Sunday morning.

“The ECCA wishes to inform the public the game between Cleveland County Cricket Club and Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club, held on July 18 ended according to the rules of the Eastern County Cricket Association,” the statement said.

“However the Association will hold an urgent meeting to resolve any issues as a result of the match. The ECCA will inform the public accordingly thereafter.”

Cleveland ended a 33-year wait to win the cup last year when they beat St David’s in the first round at Sea Breeze Oval.

It is not expected they will accept the Eastern Counties ruling without some resistence, possibly even appealing the decision ahead of the second round on August 15 when Flatts provide the opposition.

Whatever the outcome, the events of Saturday are likely to reignite the debate over the rules governing the Eastern Counties competition.

A change in the division of overs, from 70-48 to 65-53 did not go far enough for some, and in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s match Stephen Outerbridge, the Bay batsman, said he had asked the ECCA to address the 7.20pm cut-off time.

“This was one rule that I asked to be changed, but there are people who make a decision who just don’t have an idea,” Outerbridge said.

Wendell Smith, the former St David’s player and coach who now works as a match-day commentator, said officials should have extended the playing time to take into account the time wasted by Cleveland during the game.

“Bailey’s Bay ended being penalised because of Cleveland’s behaviour, I just thought the Eastern Counties executives should have told the umpires to add that 40 minutes on at the end, to extend the match to 8pm,” Smith said.

In the absence of that, Smith said the simple solution would be to force teams to have to bowl 20 overs in the final hour.

“It would cut all of that stuff [time wasting] out. Now teams can stall and use up the time and that’s what Cleveland ended up doing,” Smith said.