TOM Latham, the Saltires' latest overseas recruit, rates beating England among the highlights of his fledgling career.The 21-year-old who will make his debut for Preston Mommsen's men against Essex at Chelmsford today, achieved that feat as captain of New Zealand A during the winter, and having also top-scored in a T20 victory over Stuart Broad's side, he would now love to claim a few more English scalps after signing for the remaining eight games of Scotland's final YB40 campaign.
The top order batsman, who has already played in eight ODIs for the Black Caps, had been on Cricket Scotland's radar for several months before finally putting pen to paper on Thursday. Cricket Scotland originally wanted him for the entire campaign but such has been his meteoric rise through the representative ranks that he was included in his country's squad for the recently completed Test series south of the border, rendering him unavailable for the opening YB40 jousts of the summer.
Latham has still to make his Test debut after sitting out the defeats at Lord's and Headingley but his inclusion in the squad also cost him the chance of spending the summer with Clydesdale. The Titwood club had agreed to make him their professional for the season but got cold feet when they realised their man might well have bigger fish to fry.
"Things have finally been resolved and I'm delighted," said Latham whose father, Rod, also represented New Zealand 37 times in the early 1990s and spent a season in Scottish club cricket with Brechin. "I've been aware of the Saltires' interest for a while now and it's pretty exciting to be looking forward to my debut against Essex.
"It would also have been nice to have played for Clydesdale, especially since I've heard my dad talking about his time in Scottish club cricket, but I guess they couldn't be sure how much I was going to be available.
"Things have developed for me pretty quickly over the last year and I've been lucky to have had quite a few career highlights already. Captaining New Zealand A to a win against England was right up there and I was also lucky enough to play in a T20 win over them as well.
"Hopefully I can also savour victory over a few counties during the next month or two."
Latham hopes to at least match the impact made by his Canterbury and former New Zealand U19 team-mate George Worker who played three times for the Saltires in 2011, taking part in one win.
"George has told me a fair bit about what to expect and I know he really enjoyed playing for the Saltires. Although I'm only 21 I guess I'll be trying to pass on a bit of my big-game experience to what I know is quite a young team. I'm looking forward to meeting the guys and getting started against Essex. I know my role in the team and hopefully I can help the side get a few wins."
Latham will fill the crucial No 3 berth in the team, immediately after the new and youthful opening partnership of Matty Cross and Freddie Coleman who were paired for the first time in last weekend's defeats to Derbyshire and Surrey.
The Saltires will be without Majid Haq, who has a hamstring injury, and Richie Berrington, who has been suffering from a chest infection as they bid for their first win of the season, but both are expected to return when Scotland entertain Australia A in a four-day encounter at The Grange starting on Friday.
It is a match which will give Scottish players valuable experience of competing against some of the best players in the world in the longer format while preparing some of Australia's Test specialists for this summer's Ashes.
It is likely that several of Scotland's county-based players will come into the side but coach Pete Steindl will be unable to finalise his squad until the middle of the week.
"It is a massively important game for us in terms of gaining experience of multi-day cricket against top quality opposition," he said.
The Australian side includes such skilled practitioners as Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon and captain Brad Haddin all of whom will bid to win back the Ashes later in the summer.
Saltires squad (v Essex): P Mommsen c, C Burnett, E Chalmers, F Coleman, M Cross, G Drummond, G Goudie, M Iqbal, T Latham, M Leask, C MacLeod, D Nel.
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