In a bizarre move, top club St. David's withdrew their team from Saturday's Premier Division opener because a key player was last week served with a one-game ban by the Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB).

The eastenders felt compelled to make the extraordinary move and pull out of the clash at St. John's Road against league champions Western Stars after discovering that fast bowler Mackie Crane was penalised for an incident that occurred during a practice match against the Under-17 national squad at the National Sports Centre on May 3.

The player, invited as a member of the opposition Under-21 squad which was skippered by Steven Outerbridge of Bailey's Bay, is understood to have left the game without formerly notifying any coaches.

But the eastend club have remained steadfast in support of their player, claiming that it was undemocratic for any action of this nature to be implemented without summoning him to a disciplinary hearing.

Team manager Delby Borden, also a long-serving member of the BCB, said that the club's executive met to discuss the matter on Friday night after receiving the news.

"A decision was made that they would not be playing the game on Saturday which Crane was barred from participating, and the players were informed of such decision at St. John's field on Saturday prior to the scheduled start of the fixture," said Borden.

Board president Reginald Pearman, while not going into any details about the ban or the decision by St. David's to not play their game, conceded yesterday that they were preparing to take immediate steps to look into all games that were not played on the opening weekend.

"Our intention is to meet as soon as possible and look into reasons why all of the matches scheduled were not played, and we will have to get the clubs involved in this also," he said.

This would not only cover the St. John's field fiasco but many other matches that were affected by grounds not being prepared in time for the opening matches as well as the situation at Devonshire Rec. where that club refuses to allow Social Club to use the facility for their home matches anymore.

Another matter which the Board may also address is the shortage of umpires with a few games having no officials or, in many cases, just one.

St. David's intends to submit their letter of appeal this morning and hope their player is offered a hearing.

While nobody is saying it, the club will protest any move by the Board to have them forfeit the points from the fixture.

"I am not getting too involved in this case because I am a member of the Board, but the club executives intend to follow it up and urge the Board to further look into the matter," said Borden.

"My personal opinion is that a disciplinary hearing should have taken place. I was there and saw everything take place. On his way from the field Mackie passed me and suggested that his arm was hurting and revealed that he intended to leave early. National coach Mark Harper was sitting near and was within hearing distance of the conversation as well.

"But the key thing is to have an hearing and discuss what happened, if somebody is wrong then so be it. But a meeting has to take place."

The view of the club is that the player shouted his intentions to Under-17 coach Arnold Manders who apparently didn't hear him, but Under-21 skipper Stevie Outerbridge was also told and gave Crane his approval to depart.

The club is not sure whether it was Manders or Harper who was persistent in following this up and reporting it to the Board for action to be taken, but St. David's thinks the resulting ban was unjustified.