ON the day that British cricket lost the sport's most prized trophy - one that had been held throughout his time in the post - it was rather odd that it was Scotland's national coach who lost his job.

Pete Steindl had, of course, nothing to do with the loss of the Ashes. Yet, while Andy Flower, his England counterpart, was fending off questions about the ease with which his men had delivered the Ashes urn back to Australian ownership, it emerged that Steindl could not persuade himself and others that he should remain in his job after last month's failure to guide his team to the T20 World Cup finals.

On a human level the comparison seems hideously unfair.

Flower remains hugely respected because he has won a few Test series and a T20 World Cup as head of the cricket division of an organisation whose resources in terms of finance and personnel are matched only by those of India.

From the longest established meaningful first-class cricket set-up, where players hone their talents with and against the very best, he starts off being able to select any European player and does not have to stop there. A full team of Flower's fellow Africans have represented England in recent years, not to mention a couple of Australians.

Scotland have imported heavily down the years too but, like world cricket's other associate nations who operate on the rung below Test status, only have access to those not good enough to play at international level in their homelands.

Even so, Scotland has developed a reputation for playing those second-tier England players who recognise that their time at Test level may never come. With that in mind, one of the more remarkable statistical anomalies I have encountered in recent years is that, of the 16 batsmen to come to the crease when a mostly homegrown Scotland XI put together by Steindl faced England at The Grange in 2010, only one was born in England.

Adding to the irony, that sole figure - Paul Collingwood - is now helping to coach Scotland. He ended the match batting with the Irishman Eoin Morgan, after the South African-born trio of Craig Kieswetter, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen had come and gone.

Whose failure this cricketing winter has been the greater, then, and who consequently deserved to pay the price? Flower has probably made enough money to retire on, having had almost limitless resources at his disposal, yet he still seems to have his future in his own hands. Steindl, on the other hand, will have been reasonably, but by no means extravagantly, remunerated and must now seek a new job after years of trying to make very little, in comparative terms, go as far as possible.

My reflections are couched in these terms for two reasons.

Firstly, exposure to many supposedly excellent coaches down the years has only reinforced the view that, for all that bad coaches can wreck teams, even the very best depend on the talent available.

Secondly, and perhaps more relevantly, I will admit there is a personal element at play because, in my limited dealings with Steindl, he has come across as a very decent individual who sought to be as honest and straightforward as he could in his public analysis and assessments of performance.

Having taken over at a very difficult time six years ago, he also appeared, through intelligent selection, man-management and understanding of the environment in which he was operating, to sort out some serious problems within the Scotland squad set-up that had proved beyond his predecessors.

I also believe the nature of cricket - no sport is more dependent on repeated exposure to the level at which you aspire to play and more brutal to those incapable of making the step up - makes his the most difficult job in Scottish sport.

Whether playing as the national team or as the Saltires, his collection of low-paid full-time players and part-timers play most of their highest profile cricket either against teams that play far more high-class international cricket or English county sides who have full-time, summer-long fixture lists.

This was always always going to be a vital winter for him following a very difficult year. It began with five defeats by an Afghanistan side whose resources make Scotland's look vast and, in 14 international matches thereafter, the only wins - five in all - were all achieved against Kenya in a fortnight in Aberdeen.

Among the defeats, while they have never had to chase more than the 500 runs England have needed in all three matches in this Ashes series, there have been fearful thrashings by Afghanistan, Australia and Ireland, while the Saltires' final YB40 campaign against the counties was dismal, too.

This winter, though, facing only their fellow associates, would provide us with evidence of what had been gained from that exposure to higher-class opposition.

The true test was expected to be the bid for one of two places at the 50-over World Cup; claiming one of the six places in the T20 World Cup finals was expected to be routine. That it did not prove so - the Scots finished seventh - has forced hands sooner than expected.

The decision, then, may be the right one, but I, for one, am sorry to see Steindl go. I just hope that no-one involved with Cricket Scotland believes that he alone is responsible.