SCOTLAND flew out on their make-or-break World Cup qualifying expedition to Ireland yesterday with Andy Moles, the coach, standing outside Edinburgh airport stating: “We are not going there just to qualify, we are going there to win.”
Buoyed by recent performances in the totesport League — wins against Warwickshire and Somerset and a tie with Derbyshire from their past half a dozen matches — and the addition of four full-time professionals released by their counties, Scotland know that everything is in their favour. If they blow it, they have only themselves to blame and the consequences would be catastrophic.
It was bad enough four years ago when they threw away the vital matches and the players lost all their personal funding as a result, but now that they have a packed programme they would struggle to survive against regular county competition and an expanding international programme if the financial rug were pulled from under them. Sponsors and sportscotland have made it clear that continued support depends on reaching the World Cup.
That task is easier than four years ago, with the number of qualification places being expanded from three to five. They start against Oman on Friday, followed by Canada, Papua New Guinea and Namibia and, should they win all four, would have qualified before they take on Holland, on paper their closest rivals. A couple of defeats, however, and Scotland could be in the fifth-place play-off.
“If we perform anywhere near our capability, we will do very well,” Moles, the former Warwickshire opener, said. “The first target is the top five, but we really want to win the tournament. We want to make a statement that we are the up-and-coming nation outside the Test-playing countries. The talking is finished and now we have to deliver. We feel we are ready and we cannot get there quickly enough. ”
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The squad that have been playing in the totesport League will be without their overseas professionals but are more than compensated by the presence of Dougie Brown (Warwickshire), Gavin Hamilton (Durham), John Blain (Yorkshire) and Kyle Coetzer (Durham).
“They bring a lot of experience and a lot of quality,” Moles said. “Their calmness and self-belief will be huge and that will be infectious as far as the other players are concerned. Three have played a lot of cricket and will bring a lot of experience, while Coetzer is young and very skilled.”
At this stage, the biggest problem facing Scotland is that Dougie Lockhart, who has run into a rich vein of batting form, is unable to join the squad until the weekend because of work commitments. In addition, Colin Smith, a policeman in Aberdeen, has been called back on duty during the G8 summit at Gleneagles and will miss two of the five pool matches. Fortunately, because they are wicketkeepers, their absences dovetail, with Lockhart joining shortly before Smith departs.