SCOTTISH cricket will embrace a new era this week while also paying tribute to the old. Wednesday marks the start of the summer schedule for the men’s national team when they take on Afghanistan in the first of four one-day internationals at the Grange, this week’s double-header against one of cricket’s rising nations to be followed by two games against Sri Lanka.

It will be a first match in charge for new head coach Shane Burger. The 36-year-old South African was appointed over the winter to succeed Grant Bradburn with the remit of taking Scottish cricket to the next level. Bradburn set the bar fairly high during his four-year tenure, overseeing a first 50-over win over a Test-playing nation (Sri Lanka), a maiden ODI win over similar (Zimbabwe) and last year’s breakthrough victory over England.

With optimism high, Burger has resisted the urge to make too many changes but captain Kyle Coetzer expects the new coach will make his mark in time.

“It definitely feels like the start of a new era,” said the Aberdonian. “There’s been a lot of good work done in the last couple of years and Shane will have seen all that in the time that he’s been there.

“He’s been trying to learn as much as he can as quickly as he can and getting to know all the guys. Now he wants to take us to another level. It’s a new chapter for Scotland with a new man in charge and I’m sure our development will keep going in that upwards curve.

“In time Shane will put his stamp on things. It’s been hard for him as he’s only really seen a week’s worth of games with the guys so far on top of training. So he needs to figure out what he feels the dynamics are and who’s knocking on the door to put pressure on the players in the team.

“But I also believe it wouldn’t be the right thing to completely let it be. He’s got to try to find ways to challenge players to keep improving. It’s not going to be a case of not changing anything. He’s all about development, prog-ression and challenging players so he has to find his ways of doing that.”

The hope, as always, is that the weather holds to allow all four matches to go ahead in front of healthy crowds. And those in attendance may travel with more expect-ation than would have been the case in previous years.

“We’ve had some really good crowds over the last couple of years, the England one being the pinnacle,” Coetzer said. “If we can ask cricket fans to come out in force again for these four games that would be amazing. We always get a nice atmosphere around the Grange when it’s like that.

“Let’s just hope for some really high quality cricket and some exciting games that will hopefully keep attracting people. There is certainly an expectation on us now. Probably the biggest it’s ever been for Scotland.

“That’s a different dynamic for guys to deal with. But it’s not something to fear. It’s what we wanted. We need to use that as inspiration in many ways. We’re turning out against some of the best players in the world so we can’t think that just playing okay will be enough. That won’t do any more. We need the challenge and the adrenaline in our system.”

Wednesday’s game will be tinged with sadness following the recent passing of former Scotland bowler Con de Lange, pictured. Coetzer, who played with the South African-born player at Northants, hopes that feeling can be channelled in a good way.

“The guys will definitely be still riding on some of that emotion when the first match comes around,” he admitted. “Con was an influential person among the group and you can see from the tributes that came from all around the world that he was a very special guy.

“The best tribute we can pay is by putting on a big performance in this series, in the first match on Wednesday in particular. He was such a big figure in our dressing room and he’s someone that we are all going to miss.”