The ICC Board meeting held today in Kuala Lumpur, some significant decisions affecting Cricket Scotland were agreed.

Cricket Scotland has been successful in being one of the first two ICC members awarded additional financial support under the Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme (TAPP). The programme was initiated by the world governing body to assist the higher ranked Associate countries in becoming more competitive in order to close the gap on the Full members. The support is for the next three years and is aimed towards enhancing the national team�s playing programme by securing fixtures against international sides. Cricket Scotland will also use the additional resource to undertake overseas tours to the major countries.

After a period of consultation and lobbying by Cricket Scotland and other ICC members, it is now possible for players not born in Scotland but with Scottish parentage to apply for exceptional circumstances in order for them to play for Scotland. This situation is caused by the ICC�s eligibility criteria being based on nationality as defined by birthplace or passport. As Scotland does not issue its own passports, and the British passport is not accepted as it covers numerous ICC members, players who have Scottish born parents but were themselves born outside of Scotland were not eligible unless they moved to Scotland for a four year qualification period.

Commenting on these announcements, Roddy Smith the Cricket Scotland CEO stated ��We are obviously delighted by today�s ICC Board decisions. The additional support will enable us to enhance our national team programme over the next three years and support our young developing side in continuing their recent progress. Since 2009 we have been in the top 3 Associate sides in 50 over and multi-day cricket and this fact along with our ambitious application has enabled us to be one of the first two members to be awarded TAPP funding. The hard work will start now in putting these additional plans into action.��

On the issue of eligibility Roddy Smith stated, ��The issue has been a prominent one for a number of years and we welcome the decision to allow players with Scottish parentage to be able to apply to the ICC for exceptional circumstances. As the Scottish passport does not exist, and parentage is not a recognised criterion , it has meant that many potential players who have one or both parents born in Scotland have been ineligible to play if they were born outside the country. Cricket was almost unique in Scottish sport by being unable to select such players.��