Clay Smith, the Cleveland coach, has apologised for his team’s behaviour on Saturday during the contentious Eastern Counties Cup match against Bailey’s Bay.

Cleveland’s players held the game up for about 40 minutes after they walked off the field because they disagreed with a decision by umpire James McKirdy.

McKirdy turned down a caught-and-bowled appeal by Treadwell Gibbons against Azende Furbert because he believed the ball had been hit into the floor.

Smith’s side also wasted a considerable amount of time by deliberately bowling slowly during the Bay innings, getting through just 40 overs in 3½ hours.

“That was purely down to the players on the field of play during what they felt they needed to do to hold on to the cup,” Smith said. “As a coach I wasn’t pleased at all with some of the things that went on, I don’t condone some of the stuff that transpired.”

The time Cleveland wasted by walking off the field was not taken into consideration by the officials as the stumps were pulled at 7.20pm with the two scores level. The umpires’ decision to not add any time caught everyone at Lord’s by surprise, Smith included.

“I was surprised myself how slow the umpires allowed us to bowl our overs,” Smith said.

Even when they were on the field Cleveland’s behaviour left a lot to be desired, and their reaction to some umpiring decisions that went against them is likely to lead to some form of punishment. While Smith is sorry for his players’ actions, he said they had been pushed to the brink by the umpires.

“Even after the game my players looked at me and they knew I wasn’t satisfied with how we went about it, but obviously they were still elated that we held on to the cup,” Smith said. “It wasn’t cricket and I apologise for my players’ actions. But, on the flip side, I have to give them credit for showing some character as there were a few decisions that went against us that could have helped us to win the game a lot easier, but we didn’t get the decisions.

“The fourth one was a blatant caught-and-bowled, that was the one that took it over the edge.”

The umpires were reportedly threatened by some of the Cleveland players with one player, Shaki Darrell, leaving the field in frustration when the match was held up by Cleveland’s protest.

It is expected that some players will face disciplinary charges once the referees reports are received by the Eastern Counties Cricket Association, who have planned an emergency meeting to look into the incidents which tarnished the match.

Whether Cleveland are ultimately stripped of the trophy remains to be seen, although it seems unlikely, because in a statement yesterday the ECCA said that the game, “ended according to the rules of the Eastern County Cricket Association.”

Smith admitted he had even asked umpires McKirdy and Oscar Andrade if he could remove one of his players from the field in an effort to calm the situation down and get the game restarted.

Still, he was as surprised as anybody when the umpires removed the bails to indicate that the match was over.

“They did hold a meeting during the game and I thought that because they had lost so much time that they would have said ‘we’re going to play an extra half-hour to make up for the time’, but they didn’t make that ruling and I don’t know if they have the power to make that ruling,” Smith said.

“When they pulled the stumps I was shocked because I was certain they were going to give one more over and we were preparing for another over to be bowled.”

Smith, though, believes that his side’s slow over rate was exactly what other teams would have done if the roles were reversed.

“I’ve been around cricket for years and lets face it, if any of those teams were in our position they would have probably done the same thing when it came to time-wasting,” he said. “This isn’t the first time it has happened, but it doesn’t make it right and it is not good for cricket.” s