With Kenya batting out for the winning draw, there was very little in the way of cricketing excitement for the spectators in the first hour after lunch on day three of the Intercontinental Cup semi-final. But fortunately one of the Bermuda players was on hand to entertain.

Twenty minutes into the second session, a distressed shouting could be heard from the direction of the clubhouse.

This continued for a few minutes before team manager El James and the assembled spectators realised what was happening.

Ryan Steede, who was obviously suffering from some kind of stomach-related problem, had stayed behind in the dressing room and had now managed to lock himself in.

After a little more crying for help, the key finally arrived and the fast bowler was able to rejoin his team-mates.

The welcome reception for the four teams competing in Namibia was a lavish affair at the Wanderers Sports Club just outside Windhoek.

It was a lovely setting for the informal event but, like most ceremonies of this kind, it was a relatively straightforward affair, sombre, polite and procedural.

So it was a mixture of horror and delight which greeted the speech of Percy Sonn, currently the ICC?s second most important administrator and the president-elect for next year.

Sonn, who famously had ?a few too many? during the 2003 World Cup and began abusing journalists, managed to offend not only all four competing teams but also the Namibian hosts, who have spent the past few weeks dealing with the ignominy of staging an event in their country for which they couldn?t quite qualify themselves.

It was fortunate, in a way, that there were no microphones at the event so some of Sonn?s remarks might not have filtered to the back of the room.

Having said to the Namibians ?thank you for hosting us here even though you didn?t qualify for the event ? and that?s your problem? he went around explaining how each side?s qualification for the semi-finals was either lucky or controversial.

To UAE: ?Didn?t you only get past Nepal by one point??

To Ireland: ?It was only because of the state of the wicket against Scotland that you made it.?

His reference to Kenya was related to narrowly scraping past Namibian opposition who should really have beaten them.

And to Bermuda, he inferred that they probably wouldn?t have made it if the USA had been in their group rather than the Cayman Islands who had come in as late replacements after the Americans were thrown out.

The phrase ?bloody journalists? is used all too easily nowadays ? although in the case of two of the last three Bermuda tours, it has literally proved to be the case.

Sports Editor Adrian Robson managed to smash his head on an open, metal window during the ICC Trophy in Ireland, leaving him in need of medical treatment from physio Daniel Morgan.

Morgan applied a wraparound bandage to the scribe?s head to stem the flow from two deep gashes.

On day one of the Kenyan game on the current tour, this reporter was in need of Morgan?s attention. A mixture of high altitude and searing heat were enough to cause a massive nosebleed after just four overs sitting out in the sun.

Morgan handed over gauze, tissues and even removed one of his plastic gloves from the medical kitbag to help deal with the problem, which had also afflicted a number of the players during the African adventure.

Competing against the Kenyans, Bermuda were not alone.

Following a tradition that begun in Ireland and continued in Canada, there were Islanders among the crowd at the United Sports Ground in Windhoek.

Linda R. Simons, an Attorney General?s office employee, and her father St. Clair Augustus made the trip with the players and watched every ball of the Kenya game, apart from occasional naps, from the comfort of the pavilion or under the Bermuda team?s pitchside canopy.

For Augustus, it was yet another sporting trip, having followed the football team all over the place, including El Salvador, while Simons is used to taking in Test match cricket on her trips to the Caribbean.