Cricket in Scotland

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Cricket has a considerably lower profile in Scotland than it has in neighbouring England. Scotland is not one of the ten leading cricketing nations which play Test matches, but the Scottish national team is now allowed to play full One Day Internationals even outside the Cricket World Cup, in which Scotland competed in 2007. Scotland has a well established recreational cricket structure.

History

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Cricket in Scotland has a long history, which can be traced back to the 18th century.

However, it has been afflicted by Anglocentrism, with many notable Scottish players joining the English national team, instead of their own, and with the Scottish national team playing as an English county side.

Men's national team

The Scottish men's team competed in the Cricket World Cup in 1999. It lost all five of its matches and was eliminated in the preliminary round. Scotland failed to qualify for the 2003 World Cup but successfully qualified for the 2007 event in the West Indies. Scotland won the qualifying tournament, the ICC Trophy, in Ireland in 2005. Scotland played Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands in the opening group stage in 2007. Most of the members of Scotland's national team are amateurs, although a few Scots have played professionally in English domestic cricket, and for the England national team, including former captain Mike Denness.

In 2003, the Scottish team was granted a place in the English national one day cricket league in the hope that playing against professional cricketers on a regular basis would improve the performance level of the best Scottish cricketers.

Administration

The governing body for Scottish cricket is Cricket Scotland, which administers women's cricket and junior cricket as well as the men's game.

The then Scottish Cricket Union resigned from the UK Cricket Council in 1992, effectively severing links with the organisation of cricket in England. In 1994 Scotland became an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council.[1]

Notable Scottish cricketers

Scottish cricket's lower profile results partly from the fact that many of its best players have either played in England, or for it.

The most famous cricketers to have come from Scotland are probably the former England captain, Mike Denness, Warwickshire all-rounder Dougie Brown, and former England test players Gavin Hamilton and Gregor MacGregor who represented Scotland at Rugby as well as England at Cricket.[2] Another great Scottish cricketer was B.R. (Lager) Hardie, who was a major contributor to the successful Essex side of the 70's and 80's. Possibly one of the best spinners and certainly a respected journalist was the aptly named Ian Peebles,[3] who was one of the cricketers of the year in 1931 alongside Donald Bradman. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow played for Oxford University and Somerset and later became a prominent cricket writer and correspondent. The South African-born former England captain Tony Greig also qualified for the team due to his Scottish parentage.[4]

The most infamous cricketer, a man who was vilified in Australia, was a Scot, Douglas Jardine, father to and inventor of "Leg Theory", which is well documented under "Bodyline". Jardine was born in British India, brought up in St Andrews, spent most of his life in England, died in Switzerland and his ashes were scattered in Perthshire.[5] His parents were Scottish, and he gave his own children Scottish names.

Scots also played for other countries: Tom Campbell for South Africa[6] and Archie Jackson for Australia.[7]

2009 ICC Twenty20 World Cup

The Scottish national team competed in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 being held in England in June 2009. Scotland competed with well-established cricketing nations New Zealand and South Africa in Group D. All of Scotland's matches were played at the Oval, London.

References

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Further reading

  • The Story of Cricket in Scotland by John S. Carruthers (1950)
  • Scottish Cricketers 1905–1980 by R.W.S. Miller (1980)
  • The Bicentenary of Cricket in Scotland by Paul C.M. Roberts (1988)
  • The Encyclopedia of Scottish Cricket by David W. Potter (1999) (the major work on the subject)
  • Saltire and Flannels by Fraser Simm (2000)
  • Echoes of a Summer Game by Fraser Simm (2007)
  • As the Willow Vanishes by Richard S Young (2014)

External links

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