WITH the frustration of a truncated World Cup appearance serving as motivation, Scotland will get back on the horse and try to improve their chances of qualifying for another one.
Hopes were high heading into this year’s T20 tournament off the back of a ground-breaking 2021 in which they made it through the first round for the first time in the country’s history.
Prospects of a repeat suffered a blow following a rain-blighted prep camp in Wangaratta, were reignited by a stunning opening win over the West Indies only to be extinguished by two disappointing defeats to Ireland and then Zimbabwe. The irony that Scotland would have qualified had that final match been rained off is certainly not lost on head coach Shane Burger. Not for the first time in Scottish cricket history, the weather didn’t play ball.
“The rain never seems to work in our favour,” said the South African with a smile. “We went to a place north of Melbourne to prepare and it would have been brilliant with lots of matches against good teams. But it pretty much rained the whole time and that put us behind the eight-ball a bit in terms of a lack of match sharpness and also not getting a proper look at some of the guys in the squad.
“The other factor worth mentioning is our actual gametime leading into the competition. We would have been right at the bottom of the table in terms of T20Is played over the past year. You can practise as much as you want to and have really sharp drills but that doesn’t mean the guys will always nail that in a match situation. And we probably saw that in the two defeats as, when we were under that severe pressure, we couldn’t win the bigger moments. More experience would have allowed us to cope better, I’m sure of that. But I can’t fault the guys for effort or commitment.”
Scotland probably spent too much time playing 50-over cricket this year rather than fitting in more T20Is but all that one-day practice will hopefully not have been in vain. The Saltires are in Namibia for the penultimate series of the seemingly never-ending World Cricket League 2 campaign before a final fling in Nepal in February.
Win three of their final eight fixtures and they will be guaranteed a place in next summer’s final Qualifier from where two of the 10 competing countries will book a berth at the 50-Over World Cup taking place in India this time next year. It remains an outside berth at best – the ICC in their wisdom have kept the finals to just 10 teams, a ridiculous stance when every other sport is making their flagship tournaments bigger – but it gives Scotland something to focus on.
“Finishing top of this table would have been our goal at the start and that’s a real possibility for us now,” added Burger. “We need three wins to do it but that’s easier said than done. All the teams around us are getting better all the time and we have a target on our backs as people want to beat the best team in the group. But we’re pretty happy with where we’re standing and hope we can get over the line to keep alive our chances of making another World Cup.”
Two of Scotland’s stalwarts passed each other in the revolving door ahead of this one. Calum MacLeod chose the T20 World Cup as his platform from which to bow out from a stellar international career after 22 years and 4264 runs. The 33 year-old is replaced in the squad by former captain Kyle Coetzer who retired from T20Is in the summer but continues to make himself available for 50-over cricket.
“There’s never an ideal time to retire but every player knows themselves when it’s the correct time to move on,” said Burger of MacLeod. “Cloudy has been given a good opportunity within education and wanted to take that up. Yes, we’re going to miss him and all his runs and experience but we also respect his decision.
“When you lose a player like that and have a bit of a changing of the guard it’s good to have someone like Kyle coming back into the fold with all the experience that he brings.”
At the other end of the age scale, Burger has handed an opportunity to Chris McBride, Brandon McMullen and Tom Mackintosh, the latter still just 19 years old.
“This is an amazing opportunity to take one or two of the younger players who will hopefully form part of the future generation of Scottish cricketers,” added Burger. “Tom has all the attributes and character to go on and play at the highest level.”
