Bailey’s Bay captain Terryn Fray has called for “better umpires” to be appointed for big matches in major competitions such as Eastern Counties.

Fray made the plea in the wake of his team’s 61-run loss to challengers Cleveland County at Lord’s last Saturday, which featured a controversial decision by umpire Steven Caines to give Delray Rawlins out caught after Jason Anderson appeared to drop the ball.

Caines was officiating alongside Precious Smith, who is the only woman to have stood in the middle in the competition’s history.

“In my honest opinion I just feel these competitions require some of the better umpires to be in the middle and that’s my only concern,” Fray told The Royal Gazette.

“We can’t use these tournaments to groom and breed umpires; they have to be completely ready.

“We have umpires that can deal with adversity and pressures of the game and they are our better umpires. We don’t want the ones that can just make good calls, it’s about making the correct calls under pressure.”

Bay were left seething when Caines judged star all-rounder Delray Rawlins caught on the first ball of the thirteenth over as Bay attempted to chase Cleveland’s total of 140 all out.

Rawlins looked to smash a looping full toss from Cleveland off spinner Shaki Darrell over the leg-side boundary, but sliced to cover where Jason Anderson, running away from the wicket, appeared to take the catch before the ball became dislodged as he fell to the ground.

The controversy, which reduced Bay to 31 for four, led to a 20-minute delay as tempers flared before Cleveland went on to dethrone the defending champions.

“Whether or not that out might have affected the match drastically or not, we’ll never know,” said Fray, who initially vented his frustration over the officiating in his post-match interview with Bermuda Broadcasting Company.

“But it doesn’t take away from Bailey’s Bay’s poor batting performance. We obviously have a lot of work to do when it comes to that, but we would also hope that the match is played within the rules and the laws.

“It is no slight towards Cleveland as I thought they played fantastic, but it’s purely on the umpires association. We at Bailey’s Bay feel that you have to give umpires a chance and let them gain experience, but you also have to take into account who is playing and in what situations.”