St. David's management member Kamilah Cannonier has accused the Eastern Counties Cricket Association of bias against the club, and said the decision to withdraw from this year's competition stemmed from "years of rulings against St David's".

Cannonier called the last minute decision to switch the games to the Sea Breeze Oval the 'straw that broke the camel's back', and said club members were tired of losing out 'year in, year out' in dealings with the Association.

She also condemned the ECCA as unprofessional over their decision to award Bailey's Bay the games for a second straight year at a meeting in June, despite St David's being confirmed as the host club as late as April.

And Cannonier said that while the East End side were being portrayed as "spoilt children" in the whole episode, they had been left with no other choice but to finally take a stand.

"It wasn't just one decision that made us not want to play this year, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Cannonier.

"It has been years of rulings against St. David's stemming from rule changes and so forth such as changes in overs for matches, player eligibility in regards to living in the area for a certain amount of years and so forth.

"Then it got into more serious dealings, and actually last year we played in protest with some issues that are still unresolved to this date.

"We had another option of playing under protest again this year, but we felt we have to back our membership that said they are tired of this year in and year out.

"They don't like how the Eastern Counties is running and we have to stand by our members and our principles."

Last year the champions rescinded their ECCA membership and withdrew from the 105-year old competition in protest at the association's new policy to share proceeds from rented lots at matches between its affiliates, although they later decided to play under protest.

Although the club would like to be involved in this year's edition of the series, Cannonier is adamant that the club and its members would not back down over their demands that St David's hosts the game.

"The hosts for the next Counties series is announced at the final match of the current series, which was us last year, and we started preparing our field.

"We have also met with the Eastern Counties periodically, and the last time in April, roughly around the time the letter was sent. The letter was tabled at the meeting in June where it was voted upon and we were outnumbered and the games were awarded to Bay.

"This was a ruling we immediately objected to. We brought it back to the management and they took a firm stance and we also took it to our members.

"Our members didn't agree with the ruling and asked if we could send an appeal letter in.

"We did this and our matters weren't addressed professionally and still to this day we haven't received anything from the association in terms of an official statement, so we are left out in the dark.

"We are now here looking like spoiled children who are running home when really we have lodged serious allegations against them and we feel it is only right and responsible for them to meet with us to find a viable solution.

"But we haven't heard from anyone as yet and our stance will remain the same."

The first round of the Eastern Counties will now be played on August 14 between newly crowned champions Cleveland County and Flatts Victoria at Sea Breeze Oval, with the original first round date becoming a family fun day.