A damaged passport and an officious immigration officer nearly caused an international incident at Hosea Kutako airport yesterday ? and came close to reducing Bermuda?s squad to 12 men.

But phone calls to the Immigration and Sports Ministers from a Namibian Cricket Board official were enough to avert the disaster and save Kevin Tucker from a nightmare start to his international career.

After a gruelling 33-hour journey from Bermuda, Gus Logie?s men touched down yesterday morning in the desert airport having avoided any of the additional flight delays that plagued the ICC Trophy trip to Ireland.

All was running smoothly until Tucker, the surprise inclusion in the Island squad for the ICC Intercontinental semi-finals, began having trouble getting through immigration. Damaged plastic on the personal information page of his passport concerned the immigration officers and they claimed it looked as if it had been tampered with.

Despite increasingly angry protests from tour manager El James, the officer stamped his entry form with ?Entry Denied? and took him to the departure section to arrange a return flight to the UK, scheduled for later in the day.

There was plenty of concern among the players both for the plight of Tucker and how they would bring out a replacement, with most of the squad expressing disbelief at what had happened.

But Namibian Cricket Board president Laurie Peters, there to welcome the squad into the southern African country ahead of Sunday?s semi-final clash with Kenya, intervened.

He hurriedly put a call through to the Minister in charge of immigration and also the Sports Minister and their intervention ensured Tucker, who had managed to get through the UK with the damaged passport, was allowed to continue with the squad to their hotel.

?Things were going pretty smoothly so we figured something was going to go wrong,? said James, once the team were aboard the bus to the Windhoek Country Club. ?I?m glad to see common sense prevail. We tried to argue our case but they were intent on sending Kevin back on a return flight in the afternoon.

?I think the guy was being petty, flexing his muscles. It was a little hairy but I was pretty sure that eventually it would get sorted out.?

Tucker, who had never flown more than two hours before the marathon journey to Namibia, had already admitted ?I didn?t enjoy that at all?, after disembarking from the ten-hour flight from London and was visibly distressed while immigration officials debated his predicament.

Once the situation was dealt with, the players continued on to the hotel where they had the morning to relax and catch up on sleep before an hour-long afternoon training session at Wanderers, the venue for the final.

?I just wanted to give the guys time to stretch out the jet lag,? said Logie after the sessions that included a brief stint in the nets and some fielding work on the outfield. ?A bit of a sweat and a bit of a runaround, nothing too strenuous. We will be having serious net sessions for the next two days but this was just a chance for the guys to get acclimatised.

?I think it was useful. There are no clouds in the sky at all and the air is very thin so the ball is moving quite quickly and is hard to pick up.

?Some of them struggled a little with breathing as well in the conditions but it was important that we got all this out of the way on the first day so we can concentrate on the things we want to work on in the two days leading up to the game.?

Logie, whose side qualified for these finals with victories over Canada and Cayman in Toronto last month, is expected to name his team tomorrow.

Ireland, who take on UAE in the other semi-finals, shared a flight with Bermuda yesterday and also had a run-out for just over an hour at Wanderers.

The Kenyans arrive today and are expected to train at the United Sports Ground, the venue for the clash with Bermuda.