A SCOTSMAN, an Irishman, a Spaniard and a South African walk into a bar. Or, more accurately, onto a rooftop terrace, their table shaded from the heat of the baking Murcian sun by a number of well-placed parasols and awnings. The Spaniard is Jose Asenjo, CEO of the sprawling La Manga complex perched on Spain’s south-east tip where this gathering takes place. The South African is Chad Harpur, one-time Kilmarnock reserve goalkeeper, but now La Manga’s sporting director, his job to cater for the needs of the many northern European sporting institutions who come each year for the weather and stay for the state-of-the-art facilities.
The latest addition to the site – geographically three times the size of Monaco – is the European Cricket Performance Centre, an assortment of wickets, bowling machines and nets backed by a pleasant climate that makes the phrase “rain stopped play” all but redundant. They will have little need for the Duckworth-Lewis method here.
The “Scotsman” and “Irishman” at the table are actually two Englishmen but are here to represent the cricketing Celtic cousins, having negotiated and signed a 10-year lease to be the two primary beneficiaries of these new facilities. Richard Holdsworth, performance director of Cricket Ireland, and Malcolm Cannon, Cricket Scotland’s chief executive, are the men asked to help Asenjo cut the ceremonial ribbon, the pair given a strand of cloth each to take away as a keepsake of the occasion.
There are myriad reasons why cricket has never properly rooted its way into the Scottish psyche as one of the country’s foremost sports but the weather is undoubtedly a big factor. After all, a sport that can’t be played in the rain is always going to struggle in one of the soggiest parts of the world.
The hope, then, is that the virtually guaranteed sunshine of La Manga will remove that excuse from the equation. A squad of Scotland players spent a week recently trialling the facilities and the plan is for as many other groups as possible – finances dictating, Cricket Scotland get a discounted rate on bookings – to head out to hone their winter preparations in clement conditions. Further down the line there will be scope for matches, too, with Scotland and Ireland already talking about playing against each other as early as next year.
“There is enormous potential for the facility and it does make a massive difference when you can have intensive, good quality training in good weather,” said Cannon, clapping eyes on the site for the first time. “We sent out a squad of 20 recently – eight of our contracted Scottish-based players and 12 development pathway players – for a week and all of those who came out for that camp have started the season extremely well.
“It gives us the opportunity outside not to just to work on batting and bowling but our fielding exercises, too, which is becoming increasingly important in white-ball cricket. Admittedly it’s not free or on our doorstep but it’s a lot closer than Dubai which is the one we have tended to use.”
Holdsworth has been one of the key driving forces behind the construction of the centre over the past decade, with Scotland coming on board later on. It is not the first or last time Ireland have stolen a march on their neighbours. Facing the same cultural, economic and climate difficulties as Scotland, the Irish have still managed to muscle their way into the upper echelons of the bat and ball game.
At the ICC’s annual conference next month, Ireland – and Afghanistan’s - transition to full membership is expected to be rubber-stamped. It is a development that will not only bring significant financial benefits – Ireland’s annual turnover is expected to double from £6m to £12m – but will also mean a regular diet of Test matches and one-day internationals against the leading nations such as Australia, India and England.
That raised profile can only help grow the game over there and Cannon sees no reason why Scotland can’t go on to emulate the Irish great leap forward. A 13th full membership is expected to open up at some point in the future and the chief executive wants Scotland to be “the next cab off the rank”.
“Ireland has received this massive boost of moving towards full Test status and, probably, full membership of the ICC which puts them alongside the existing 10 nations,” he added. “Matching what they are doing has to be our aim. If not Test status then certainly full membership, things which are being unlinked. Full membership and the benefits that brings – in terms of finance and profile – remain a very serious goal for us. And I don’t think it should be that far away.
“Assuming Ireland and Afghanistan do get full member status that’s 12 nations. Who else is there that could or should get in after that? Possibly Nepal or the Netherlands, although they’ve got a way to go in terms of ticking all the other boxes. But we, without a doubt, are up there. If it’s down to how much you deserve it and how many of those criteria you meet then we have to be a very strong candidate to be the next cab off the rank.”
Holdsworth was complimentary about Scotland and hoped they could yet join Ireland at cricket’s top table. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had some results in big ICC events like the World Cup which has allowed us to kick on a little bit,” he said. “We very much hope Scotland aren’t far behind us and we would love to see them become the next full member and to be appearing on the world stage as we are. Scotland is more capable of doing that than any other Associate country in the world.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here