Wright, involved in such global tournaments throughout his career, acknowledges that the Scots will require a massive effort to progress from their group: they tackle New Zealand, Pakistan and Afghanistan with only the leading two sides qualifying for the latter stages.
"The team has come a long way during the three seasons they have been together," said Wright, whose side take on Australia in their final warm-up fixture this week. "They have worked hard to improve their skills and have also developed into an effective group of players, who have an excellent attitude to their cricket. They have achieved some great success in winning 13 of their 14 matches in qualifying, finishing first in both the European Regional and ICC Global qualifiers.
"The challenge now for them is to test their skills and their character against the best players from around the world, and to achieve some success at the highest level."
Wright, who has turned out at various times for the likes of Greenock and now Watsonians, has no illusions about the state of the domestic circuit in his homeland, which neither prepares elite performers properly for climbing the Associate ladder, nor presents the best talents with sufficient matches to enhance their standards. In which light, he views the looming competition as a means of showing the youngsters what they need to do to graduate into the sport's top tier.
"It is important that Scotland are qualifying regularly for World Cups at junior and senior level; all opportunities that Scottish teams or players get to play at a high level is extremely valuable in terms of learning and development," said Wright. "The bottom line is that, unless a Scottish player is a contracted county professional, he does not currently play enough quality cricket. So, for these youngsters, gaining the chance to experience a World Cup is a valuable addition to their learning process. In addition to our recent overseas tours and experience of first-class cricket at MCC Universities for some of them, we hope it will contribute to a better readiness to progress to senior level."
The schedule is daunting and Wright's squad will have to exceed expectations to have any realistic ambitions of defeating either the Kiwis or Pakistan in their opening contests, before they meet the improving Afghanis. For the teenagers, there is also the thrill of being exposed to intense clashes, and in front of large audiences.
"The atmosphere is building as the teams have finally congregated in Brisbane," said Wright. "We trained and played a couple of practice matches on the Sunshine Coast. The facilities were excellent, even though it is still winter here.
"The weather was great and allowed us to get some cricket under our belts. After our official practice matches, we will return to the Sunshine Coast for the beginning of the group action."
Wright appreciates the scale of the task in front of his compatriots, but he is surely right to accentuate the message that precious few Scots will compete in events of this magnitude.
