Former national team cricketer Lionel Cann has vehemently denied being involved in the bottle-throwing incident that saw last month's First Division match between St. David's and BAA at BAA Field abandoned.

Cann was named as the culprit by BFA and BAA sources as well as being publicly blamed in a ZBM TV report.

Referee Wendy Woodley cut the game short when a bottle was thrown onto the pitch with little more than five minutes of the game remaining, and with St. David's leading 4-0.

Eyewitnesses, however, have questioned the official's decision, saying that it was a plastic bottle thrown into the goalmouth well away from any of the players.

Cann said yesterday he wasn't involved and angrily attacked the TV station and Bermuda Football Association for failing to contact him about the incident.

"Not me, not me, I haven't had nothing to do with it," said Cann. "I don't know how my name circulated. I saw on TV that it was alleged that I threw something, or whatever. I heard it was an empty water bottle or something that was thrown onto the field, but it was definitely not me.

"I was at the game with a group of people, but you know how it is in Bermuda, you start with one name and all of a sudden it's around the Island."

Sources inside the BFA have been circulating Cann's name in connection with the incident and the cricketer is baffled as to how he got caught up in the row.

"My name's been circulated but nobody has called me to ask me anything, no-one, which is shocking, and it's not right. The first I heard of it was when someone called me and said it had been alleged on TV that it was me, but you're the first one who's called me to ask me my view on it, not even ZBM called me."

The BFA are understood to have awarded the points for the game to BAA following the incident, but St. David's are appealing on the grounds that there is no proof one of their fans threw the bottle.

Cann, who was at the game as a fan, questioned how the BFA could arrive at that judgment.

"I think St. David's has appealed, because the BFA don't even know if it was one of our fans," he said, "I heard that St. David's appealed because BAA were given the points.

"I don't know how that could possibly be, it hasn't even been proved that anyone had thrown a bottle or that it came from any of our spectators, or anything, but it was nothing to do with me.

"From what I know, it was a plastic bottle nowhere near the play and the referee just called the game off as soon as she saw a bottle on the field. It's a harsh decision. No one has been charged with anything and the BFA haven't proved where it came from and nobody knows how they got to that decision."

Cann said he was saddened by the harm the decision might do to his club's promotion challenge.

"You learn to deal with the abuse playing sports. For me personally it's hard but it saddens me more that they could take the points from St. David's without even having a case," he said. "For myself, it doesn't matter to me, trust me, I'm used to it. That's a part of life. I've grown up with controversy and it's what top sportsmen all over the world have to go through.

"Hopefully common sense prevails. It's like being in court. You have to prove your case and no case has been proven and hopefully with St. David's up 4-0 with five minutes to go, they get the points."

Even the team that benefits from the points seems slightly embarrassed by the whole situation with a source inside BAA describing the decision to abandon the game as a 'massive over-reaction'.

"It was an innocuous incident at best," said the source. "It was a plastic bottle. It was a massive over-reaction on the part of the official, and it's unfortunate because it's not the first time I've heard people complain about her.

"Some common sense should have been applied. Unfortunately the letter of the law clearly states that the referee's decision is final, and I heard last night that we have been awarded the points."

Publicly the BFA are not commenting on the matter until a decision is officially announced. Privately, however, some members of the association are seething at the position Woodley has put them in.

By the letter of the law no objects are to be thrown onto the field and if they are, the referee is entitled to abandon the game and the points awarded to the opposing team.

Various reports have indicated it was a plastic bottle that was thrown well away from any of the players.

As a BFA insider put it: "Can you imagine them abandoning a game if that happened at the World Cup?"