Ed Bailey’s bid to become Bermuda Cricket Board president was facing a backlash from cricket insiders concerned about his controversial past long before he decided to drop out of the race this weekend.The former Bermuda Cricket Board of Control boss announced he was pulling out of the running for the post on Saturday, citing his displeasure at the holding of elections and the annual general meeting before the Commission of Inquiry, set up by Glenn Blakeney, the Minister for Sport, had reported its findings.However, The Royal Gazette understands that Bailey’s bid to become president for a second time had found little support among the Island’s clubs, and several club officials had expressed the opinion that his return would be ‘a disaster’ for cricket on the Island and questioned how people could have forgotten his administration’s previous departure.Mr Bailey was forced to resign in 1997 after a club rebellion over his ‘dictatorial regime’ and ‘incompetent administration’ forced all but one of the executive committee of the then-Bermuda Cricket Board of Control to resign en masse.Sources have also raised financial irregularities that the incoming executive discovered when they started auditing the accounts in 1997.During Mr Bailey’s tenure as president $20,000 of BCBC cash, which according to a source was part of the ICC’s annual grant to the Island, went missing from a Barclays Bank account that was held in London, with a balance that dropped from $21,083.99 to a mere $642.38.“There was some money that just couldn’t be accounted for and there were more questions than answers,” said the source. “They still haven’t been answered to this day.”Despite The Gazette’s repeated attempts to contact Mr Bailey regarding these allegations, he has failed to reply to calls or e-mails requesting comment. The Gazette has called Mr Bailey four times, during the last of which he put the phone down on our reporter, and also e-mailed a series of questions to him which we have printed below.None of the allegations concerning the financial irregularities were made public at the time, however, and despite repeated assurances from El James, the then new presidnet, that the matter would be looked into, an inquiry was never held.In 1998, a report in The Gazette said: “There has been no explanation on what may have happened to the $20,000 which was held in a bank account in England.“An investigation into the Barclays Bank account which dwindled from $21,083.99 to a mere $642.38 was promised a year ago by the then-new executive BCBC committee headed by El James.“James and his board discovered the withdrawals from the BCBC account after replacing Ed Bailey and the majority of his executive in July, 1997. The new board promised a full audit of the account at the affiliates’ annual general meeting early in 1998. But James has long refused to offer any comment on the grounds that cricket didn’t ‘need the negative exposure’.”James has remained quiet on the matter ever since, however he did allude to the financial irregularities in an interview with The Gazette in February, 1999 following his re-election as president of the BCBC.“Rather than digging into something that is done, something we can do nothing about, we want to look to the future,” said James. ”We have closed that English bank account and now we will need two signatures to take money out.“Rather than looking backwards, we have put our house in order. We can’t account for what happened under the previous administration and we’re not going to try to. And there is no executive from that administration to help us find out.”Unhappy with a lack of improvement domestically or internationally and an executive that needed to be removed to stop ‘the destruction of cricket’ a group of clubs banded together to remove Bailey, first vice-president Rudolph Lawrence, second-vice president Ellsworth Christopher, secretary Wilton Smith and assistant secretary/treasurer Wally Manders.“Something has to be done. At this stage nobody can do any worse than those presently holding down positions,’’ a spokesman for the clubs told The Gazette in July, 1997. “The club officials are behind this move, not any rebel group, and the meeting will be done in a responsible and organised manner.“We intend to go ahead with plans to stop the destruction of cricket, whether it means them doing the honourable thing and resigning or leaving us with no alternative but to call a vote of no confidence. Something must give,’’The only one who survived the purge was Neil Speight, the current BCB chief executive, who was the BCBC’s treasurer at the time and did not attend the meeting where his fellow executive members ultimately resigned.Bailey has since made at least one unsuccessful attempt to be re-elected to the Board. In 2002 Bailey launched a surprise last minute bid to be regain the presidency at the annual general meeting, but did not get a single vote as Reggie Pearman narrowly beat out Keith Wainwright for the post.