DOUGIE LOCKHART, the former Scotland international cricketer, believes the game in this country is about to enter its greatest ever era.
The long-serving wicketkeeper/batsman, who retired in 2011 after winning 178 international caps, believes the fact that, unlike in his day, most of the players are professional and some are involved in the English country scene means the future is bright.
With the ICC Intercontinental Cup for 2015-17 - which got underway earlier this week with Namibia taking on Hong Kong - offering the winners the chance to play the bottom ranked Test nation in 2018, Lockhart feels there is no better time to be a Scottish cricketer.
"I know Scotland start their Intercontinental Cup campaign next month against Afghanistan and I hope the players can really kick on from where they are now," he said. "I played when we won the first ever Intercontinental Cup back in 2004 and I still have fond memories of that time.
"We worked very hard to win that tournament and at the time we were all amateur cricketers so we really had to work hard to balance training and playing with work and family life. The guys now are all pretty much full-time whether they are on contracts with Cricket Scotland or are aligned to English counties so they have a lot more time to work on their game.
"They will have been disappointed not to have won a match in the World Cup earlier this year, but they will have learnt a lot from playing against guys at that level and a number of the players have been doing well for counties and their club sides already this summer. If you look at the core of the Scottish squad compared to that of the Irish squad then it is a lot younger and I think many of these guys are coming into their prime."
Lockhart, who was speaking whilst back at his old club West of Scotland helping out at a youth training session, would still like to see more Scottish players making their way in the English county game.
"It is good to see that the international squad members who are based north of the border are centrally contacted by Cricket Scotland, but although they play for the Highlanders and the Reivers representative teams they still could do with being exposed to more regular competitive cricket," he explained.
"Down south they would be playing day in, day out so hopefully some of the guys like captain Preston Mommsen get a chance going forward."
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