Satiricus was very miffed how everyone was picking on poor Kam-Run and the WICD Board. Satiricus like all other West Indians ate, breathed and slept cricket. Not that Satiricus was any great shakes with either bat or ball. But that made him admire the players on the field even more. “How the heck did they do all those feats on the field?” he asked himself. “Because of all the people supporting them off the field, of course!” Satiricus answered himself. “Like that stand-up guy Kam-Run.”
Satiricus was one of those “off the cricket field” people in his village club. He knew all the hard labour that went into getting those 11 men on the field in their gleaming whites or multicoloured garish maroons. As he read all the snide comments about Kam-Run, all he could think was what Brother Bob had crooned back in the day, “Only those who feel it, know it”. And Satiricus felt it – just like Kam-Run.
Did anyone know what it is to fly all over the world first class and sleep in five-star hotels just to arrange the games for the cricket teams to play? Did all the critics ever have to eat those four course meals in first class? Kam-Run was a down to earth West Indian like Satiricus who just liked to eat jerked chicken with his fingers. Do people know what torture it was for Kar-Run to dab the corners of his mouth with a napkin in those French restaurants he had to take those ICE officials in London? “Only those who feel it, know it?” murmured Satiricus.
So why were so many people upset the players were seen returning home with their trophies in third class? This was the kind of thinking that’d gotten West Indies in trouble before. They started to fly first class after that Packer guy opened up his purse strings….and had gotten soft, soft, soft. Kam-Run knew athletes were like gladiators and had to be kept rough and tough. Flying third class ensured their legs weren’t stretched out too long and lose that spring they needed to jump into the air to pluck balls from beyond the boundary.
And the players not receiving their uniforms before they arrived in Bangoadesh? “No appreciation of the extra thought of Kam-Run”, sighed Satiricus. He knew Kam-Run had ordered the uniforms from some sweatshop in Bangladesh so the players could smell the freshness of new uniforms!
But that’s what the off the field officials in cricket get. No respect!!
