Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) has stood by its decision not to award Flatts Victoria Club maximum points from a rained out First Division match with PHC even though the latter turned up with less than the minimum quota of players allowed.Despite PHC reportedly turning up with only six players, both teams were awarded five points each after the August 19 First Division match at Lords was called off due to rain.Rules governing domestic 50 Over cricket state that “A team shall consist of a minimum of nine players”.However, BCB CEO Neil Speight said yesterday that PHC’s player shortage had no bearing on the Board’s final ruling on the matter.“The BCB has a match report from Flatts for this game and a report from the umpires,” he said. “Both reports indicate that PHC did not have a full team at the ground at the time the game was called off. This is an irrelevant consideration when a game is rained off.”Flatts skipper Kijuan Franks disagrees with the BCB’s ruling and believes that PHC should’ve forfeited the match for turning up short.“We should’ve gotten maximum points because as far as I know you have to show up with a team regardless if it’s a game or not,” he said. “I don’t mind if the game got called, but if you don’t have enough players then some type of penalty should be awarded.“I wrote the BCB informing them the game was affected by the weather. We sat around until 12pm waiting for a pitch report from the umpires. The umpires eventually deemed it unfit to play on but in that process PHC did not have enough players from the time they got there to the time they left.”PHC coach Clevie Wade could not verify how many of his players actually turned up for the match when contacted as he was not present at the ground.Flatts player-coach Rahji Edness believes that the match could have been played had the PHC players that were present at the ground not left after the rain subsided.“The rain stopped at 12 noon and the groundsman was attempting to prepare the wicket,” he said. “We were trying to play the match once the rain stopped but the PHC players started leaving the premises.”Earlier this week Edness lashed out at the BCB for not rescheduling last weekend’s final round of First Division matches that dashed his team’s promotion hopes.The BCB cancelled the matches because of Tropical Storm Leslie and awarded all teams five points for a No Result which was enough to land Somerset the championship and with it the sole automatic promotion spot up for grabs. It also earned second placed Western Stars the right to play Premier Division side Cleveland County in a relegation/promotion playoff match while Flatts, who were due to face Somerset in their final league outing, had to settle for third.BCB president Lloyd Fray said last week’s cancellation of matches was “consistent” with BCB playing conditions and the Board’s treatment of cricket in prior years.“The BCB Playing Conditions, under 15.3 No Result, state that games cancelled due to rain will be awarded five points,” he said. “It is the Board’s policy which has been consistently applied over the years.”Flatts had four Rain Outs or No Results and a match against Western Stars abandoned after tempers flared between opposing players during the past league campaign. Neither Flatts or Stars received any points from the abandoned match that marred the opening weekend of the 2012 domestic season.