DRS was all over the news last week but it is not the one that Doug Watson has been thinking about. While Scotland’s deposit return scheme has been booted into the long grass for the time being, on the cricket front it is the use – or otherwise – of the decision review system in the World Cup qualifier that has occupied the mind of the national men team’s interim head coach.
Scotland, infamously, lost out on a place in the 2019 World Cup at the previous qualifier as a result of the technology not being deployed. This time around the ICC [International Cricket Council] have given their umpires the option to review
decisions using video footage but only from the Super Six stage onwards. It is another slap in the face for the smaller nations and makes it a near certainty that some sort of controversy will spring up while the cameras are lying dormant.
Watson hopes it does not come to that. The South African recently replaced countryman Shane Burger as head coach until the end of July but is already well aware of what happened in Zimbabwe last time around.
His job this time is to try to land one of the two qualifying berths up for grabs at this autumn’s World Cup in India but hopes that, however, the tournament pans out, it does so without too much controversy.
“I think everyone would have loved to have had DRS for the whole tournament,” admitted the former Namibia head coach. “But the fact that we’re going to have it at the back end is brilliant. You just hope that nothing happens leading up to that. But we’re not in control of that. All we can do is control our own perform-ances to make sure we’re still there to be able to use it when it comes in later on.
“I just hope that what happened before to Scotland doesn’t happen to any team this time around. We all want hard but fair cricket and then see where we all end up.”
Scotland are the final team to take to the field in the qualifier, not playing until Wednesday, the fourth day of the tournament, when they take on old foes, Ireland. Watson, though, believes the mentality remains unchanged regardless.
“The nice thing is we don’t have to do much to motivate these guys at this point. They’re starting to get near to the start line so they’re pretty fizzed and there’s plenty of energy floating around.
“Coaches being coaches we’re always looking for something to improve on. The main thing for me is that we keep raising the bar at each training session in terms of our standards and being connected with each other.
“It’s going to be a tough tourn-ament but it’s also going to be exciting and a real opportunity for these guys to do something special for their country.
“It doesn’t really worry us when we play our first game. We’re off late but then we’re right into four games in seven days which is quite exciting. The guys will just get into a routine of playing, recovering, playing, and recovering.
“Every team that’s participating in this event wants to get to the pinnacle and to reach the last two. We’re no different. But if you focus too much on that final outcome you lose sight of what you need to do in the present to get there. We have to get the job done each day.
“It’s exciting to be playing Ireland first up and that’s our main focus – that first game. It just has to be one game at a time, even that cliche of one ball at a time. We’re not looking too far ahead, just being present in each moment.”
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