BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Regional Super50 Championship appeared headed for the courts after the Barbados Cricket Association announced yesterday it would lodge a formal protest over the exclusion of its team from the semi-finals.

Barbados finished joint fourth on 10 points with Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC), but missed out on a spot in the final four because they lost to CCC in the head-to-head contest, as stated by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in the tournament playing conditions.

However, Conde Riley, first vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association, blasted the regulation as “ludicrous”, pointing out that Barbados’s superior net run rate should have been the deciding factor.

“There is clearly an error with regard to the final standings. In any round- robin tournament, individual teams will win and lose and the tie-breaker used internationally is net run rate if most wins cannot determine the positions,” Riley, also a WICB director, told the BCA website.

“Hence I have instructed one of the BCA’s attorneys-at-law, Randall Belgrave QC, who deals with disputes, to act on the BCA’s behalf in this matter.

“It is clear to the BCA that the decision to place Barbados fifth, although they have a better net run rate than the team they placed as fourth, is flawed. This is based on all international rules. It is a ludicrous decision.”

According to the tournament playing conditions, if teams end on the same number of points, the determination on who qualifies for the semi-finals is first made on who has secured the most number of wins.

If teams are still equal, the rules state that “the team with the most number of wins over the other team(s) who are equal on points and have the same number of wins” will be used as a determination.

The third criteria is based on the team garnering the highest number of bonus points, and the final criteria is the team with the highest run rate.

Barbados and CCC both finished with two wins from their six matches, but Barbados lost to CCC by 59 runs in their round match at Kensington Oval in February.

Their net run rate, however, was slightly better than CCC’s — ending with -0.013 to the students’ -0.055

The situation was compounded by an announcement that appeared briefly on the WICB’s website following the end of the preliminary round on Sunday night, which said Barbados had indeed qualified for the semi-finals.

Since then, the WICB has confirmed top team Trinidad and Tobago, title-holders Jamaica, Windward Islands and CCC for the semi-finals, which ironically take place in Barbados next week.

Hartley Reid, the Barbados team manager, said the WICB had sent mixed signals throughout the competition.

“I’ve told WICB officials that from the beginning they were identifying the placings by run-rate, so much so that up to the end-of-round six, Barbados were placed ahead of CCC by virtue on run-rate. At the end of round seven, we are still ahead of them on run-rate,” the Nation newspaper here quoted Reid as saying.

“How can you tell us that it is no longer applicable? I don’t understand it. When I heard it, I was amused.”

T&T are scheduled to face CCC next week Thursday in the first semi-final, with Jamaica clashing with the Windwards in the second match on the following day.

The final will be played on April 21.