Being the lone Scottish journalist attending the AJ Bell World Squash Championship this week gave me a chance to see the esteem in which Scotland's head coach is held by both participants and administrators from around the globe.

Roger Flynn is the ideal man to develop players capable of earning respect from their peers and rivals and, as we chatted, he touched on a familiar topic.

"It was my predecessor who identified what he described as 'the Scottish cringe' that afflicted our players and he came up with one way of dealing with it by getting the players to start wearing kilts to functions," said Flynn. "They noticed that after they did so the other countries responded by trying to introduce aspects of their national costume. All of that was good for our players."

The vastly experienced Australian knows such devices only go so far and it was telling that, during the same event, Alan Clyne, Scotland's 26-year-old No.1 player, reflected on the fact that he has never played in a major event in his home country.

Little wonder that those involved in Scottish squash have an inferiority complex when they see the magnificent facilities Manchester enjoys as part of the superb Sportcity legacy they received from hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

They can, too, only look on with envy as their fellow racqueteers at badmintonscotland, whose chief executive Anne Smillie has scrapped royally on behalf of her sport down the years, prepare to stage next month's Grand Prix event that has attracted a stellar field.

Scottish Squash officials may, then, have made themselves very unpopular among the sporting establishment by daring to highlight what looks like a wasteful decision to build, then demolish, a venue for a showcourt for the Glasgow 2014 squash competition.

For all that he must leave the politicking to others, Flynn hinted at the scale of the potential opportunity missed. "They put tickets up for sale for the Commie Games and basically sold out for most of the stadiums immediately and it creates a buzz . . . events create buzz," he said. "My experience of major events is obviously more [from] Australia than here, but research they've carried out shows that casual court bookings for three or four months after a major event are 30 to 40% higher than normal.

"We need to give the media a showcase to support our sport with and spark the interests of our kids, who've got choices. If they've got talent they've got choices. I'd like them to have squash on that list, not just be kissing it off as a cross-trainer for whatever sport they choose."

In saying so, he expresses an understanding of sport that is notably absent among press officers across Scottish sport who want to confine all coverage to what they consider to be positive stories.

He understands that the opportunity provided by extra coverage also invites additional scrutiny but you sense that, after all three of his men at the World Championships were knocked out in their first matches, he knows that can also be a good thing in helping players understand the opportunity they are getting.

"One of the things we need is not just a one-off event at Glasgow 2014 to stimulate our sport, we need on-going opportunities for events to continue to stimulate interest for people like yourselves, because you don't want to be writing good news stories all the bloody time and heart-warming participation-type stuff that only goes so far; that's just the same story repeated," said Flynn.

Never mind players, in my view it's about time Flynn was coaching Scotland's army of failing sports administrators and teaching them about the nature of competition and the environment that breeds successful sportspeople.

And Another Thing

I am pretty sure it was ahead of Scotland's meetings with the All Blacks in 1990 that Ian McGeechan offered his often-quoted observation that "New Zealanders are simply Scots who have learned how to win". It came to mind on Tuesday night as Danny Brough led his "Bravehearts" - their choice of nickname, cheesy as it may be - to their wonderful Rugby League World Cup win over Tonga in Workington.

Not one of them boasts a Scottish accent, although, unlike their rugby union counterparts, league selects only those with relevant bloodlines. So it was that this felt like the latest piece of evidence to support my argument that Scotland's sporting problems owe less to nature than nurture.

It occurred to me that, since McGeechan uttered those words, I have attended every single Scotland match at rugby union World Cups, a total of 29 matches. Tuesday's game was, in contrast, the first rugby league match that Herald Sport has sent a staff writer to cover. How remarkable that it should be the first time I have seen Scotland beat a team they were not expected to at a World Cup.