And there were plenty nodding their heads in agreement after last Saturday's Eastern Counties debacle.

With St. David's refusing to declare and remaining at the crease until 6.30 p.m., they effectively killed the contest and any chance that opponents Bailey's Bay may have had of regaining the trophy.

Horton called the defending champions' tactics unsporting, noting that such negative cricket did little to promote the game.

Yet supporters of St. David's were convinced their team had done nothing wrong in batting for all but 14 of the match's allotted overs. Their goal, according to skipper Clay Smith, was first and foremost to avoid defeat and if Bay chose to field, having won the toss, they would have to suffer the consequences.

As it turned out, Bay, by refusing to even attempt what was an impossible run chase, forfeited the match, well aware that a draw, under Eastern Counties rules, is a worthless as defeat.

But the big loser on this occasion, as Horton was at pains to point out, was cricket itself.

And none of the players who took to Sea Breeze Oval last Saturday should be held accountable.

That this match developed into the farce that it did was purely as a result of the ridiculous and archaic rules which Eastern Counties continue to follow.

At present each match is a 118-over contest with no restriction on the number of overs either team can bat -- thus there's every chance that games can develop into the long yawn that suffering spectators had to endure last week, having anticipated much more for their seven dollar admission fee. How many of those same cricket fans will return for the final remains to be seen.

But if the Eastern Counties are to be forced into changing their rules, perhaps they should all stay away in protest.

One-day cricket was never meant to be played this way and it's high time those on the Eastern Counties executive followed the same route already taken by the Western and Central Counties.

Make it a 50- or 60-over-per team competition, and allow the best cricketing team on the day to take the spoils.

Counties administrators would argue that the competition has survived and succeeded for many years using the regulations now in force, and to change them would break with tradition.

But when traditional methods begin driving spectators away, it's perhaps time to rethink.

With cricket already playing second fiddle to soccer and its popularity continuing to fluctuate, the game can ill afford a repeat of last Saturday's all-too-predictable outcome.

-- ADRIAN ROBSON