Scotland cannot be blamed for taking advantage of ICC's eligibility regulations

Sports Journalist

Thursday 27 September 2012

Some cynicism has been expressed over the recruitment of four English-based county players to Scotland's touring squad for South Africa next month.

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Neil Drysdale

After all, it is not as if the likes of Richard Coughtrie, a 24-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman, who averaged just 9.45 in seven matches this season, is clearly superior to home-grown performers behind the stumps such as Matthew Cross and Craig Wallace.

Yet, as Majid Haq, the senior member of the party, pointed out yesterday, the new men have not just arrived from the Southern Hemisphere, blethering vaguely about grannies from North Uist. They have simply taken advantage of the ICC eligibility regulations. They all have Caledonian parentage of some kind or another, and it would be ridiculous for Cricket Scotland to tolerate a situation where they weren't allowed to look at all their options when developing squads for future campaigns.Besides, England have been quick enough to snap up Gavin Hamilton, Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan, in the past, so why shouldn't the Associates seek to expand their resources?The proof, of course, will come on the field when Matt Machan, Rob Taylor and the others are pitched in with such stalwarts as Haq and Richie Berrington. In some respects, the selectors had little choice but to spread their net, because a string of Scots, including Gordon Drummond and Kyle Coetzer, were unavailable for the trip, while it was asking a lot of the Under-19s, who only recently returned from the World Cup in Australia, to commit themselves to another month away from work and studies on what is effectively a development tour.In which light, this may be the dawn of a new era in the Scottish game. Or, more probably, one or two of the debutants will prove they possess the requisite qualities to rise further and seal their berths in the Saltires ranks, and the remainder will turn out to be no better than those they have replaced for the South Africa tour.As always, though, the governing body's first priority should be about encouraging and unearthing indigenous talent. Anything else and they are failing in their duties.

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Scotland cannot be blamed for taking advantage of ICC's eligibility regulations

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