Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) could be forced to step in and resolve an ongoing behind-the-scenes impasse involving Bermuda Cricket Umpires Association (BCUA) and Cup Match clubs Somerset and St.George?s.

BCUA officials are withholding a short list of potential umpires for next week?s classic until they can finally meet with the two respective Cup Match clubs for discussions aimed at ensuring the disturbing scenes that unravelled at Wellington Oval last year are not repeated.

?I am aware of certain details that are going down and we will do whatever we have to do. But I am not prepared to comment on the matter at this particular time,? stated BCB president Reggie Pearman yesterday.

Falling just shy of accusing the two Cup Match clubs of being bullies, BCUA secretary Randy Butler confirmed that a short list of umpires for next week?s classic had yet to be sent to Somerset and St.George?s officials.

?What?s the sense of producing a short list if the guys (umpires) don?t know if anything has been changed,? Butler told .

?We wanted to meet with the clubs because we were promised a meeting after all those things went down last year at Wellington Oval.

?It was in the press that they would meet with us and try to sort out this mess. We then asked the clubs to meet with us so that we can discuss some things about the Cup Match, but never got a reply. Somerset said they wrote us, but I have been checking the box every day and there is nothing there.

?We can?t force Somerset or St.George?s because it?s not our game, and we thought that if they were interested in making any minor adjustments they would meet with us. The only thing we were asking for were minor changes in the regulations just to upgrade the match ? not take anything away from Cup Match.

?But basically what they are saying without actually saying it is ?hands off guys? this is our match.?

When contacted, Richard Scott, president of Somerset Cricket Club, and St.George?s Cricket Club president Neil Paynter both declined to comment on the matter.

Scott, however, did reveal that a joint statement on behalf of both clubs would be forthcoming in the next few days.

Meanwhile, on a separate note, Butler revealed yesterday that the BCUA had not been informed by the BCB that a match referee had been appointed for next week?s big game in the West End.

?I did hear through the grapevine that somebody is coming in because of the situation that developed last year,? he said. ?But nobody has said anything to us. I only learned about the match referee from a story I read in the press.

?There was talk before that the Board might be working on something like that, but that was between the Board and Cup Match clubs and not anything to do with the BCUA.?

While Butler said he was in favour of having a match referee appointed, he stressed that before one could be appointed certain procedures would first have to take place.

?To go with a match referee you have to have proper regulations and a code of conduct put in place,? he explained. ?However, we haven?t received any regulations or a code of conduct from the Board.

?There could be a code, but we don?t have a copy. I don?t have any problems with the Board trying to improve the situation in cricket, but any changes you have in the code of conduct you need to have early enough so that you can go over it with the umpires and the match referee so that they will know and understand the rules.

?Tomorrow (today) is the final trials, our guys will also be umpiring on Sunday and then next week is a short week. So there may not be ample time for the umpires and match referee to meet to straighten things out with the two teams, captains and officials to ensure that everybody is on the same page.

?It?s not just about bringing in a big name from overseas or wherever and then all of a sudden they know everything about Cup Match, it just doesn?t work that way.

?The match referee should have been on the Island earlier to sit down with the umpires and go over the rules and regulations to make sure everybody understands their job.?