Scotland

Scotland will be hoping to build on its disappointing ICC Cricket World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, although it will face difficult tests against India and Pakistan in South Africa at the ICC World Twenty20.

Few players will look back too fondly on their time in the West Indies as Scotland suffered heavy defeats to Australia and South Africa, despite some excellent cricket in parts of those games. Most disappointing of all was the defeat by the Netherlands by eight wickets.

Among the relatively few highlights was Colin Smith’s brave 51 against Australia, while Majid Haq, whose four distinguished victims at the event were Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Graeme Smith and Ashwell Prince, impressed with his spin bowling, as did Glenn Rogers.

Led by new captain Ryan Watson, who replaced former skipper Craig Wright who stepped down as skipper at the end of the CWC 2007, the squad has some experience of Twenty20 cricket at county level which it will look to utilise at the ICC World Twenty20.

Dougie Brown, the Warwickshire all rounder, has vast experience of Twenty20 cricket with his county, playing in 27 matches before the start of the 2007 season, taking 23 wickets in total. His county colleague, Navdeep Poonia, and former Yorkshire all rounder Gavin Hamilton have also played Twenty20 cricket in England.

The team qualified for the event following an outstanding campaign at the ICC World Cricket League Division One in Kenya, Nairobi in February.

Hamilton and Fraser Watts starred in the event, both scoring three fifties, while Wright (10 wickets) and Paul Hoffmann (eight wickets) were the leading bowlers.

Scotland enjoyed an outstanding victory over Kenya in the group stages, although it couldn’t repeat its heroics against the host nation in the final when it was defeated by eight wickets. The $US250,000 that the team secured as a result of qualifying for the ICC World Twenty20 will provide funding for the future development of Scottish cricket.

Scotland: Ryan Watson (captain), John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gordon Drummond, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Ross Lyons, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith, Fraser Watts, Craig Wright.