Scotland XI to Tour South Africa

Cricket Scotland today announced that a Scotland XI squad will embark on a month long tour of South Africa, departing in early October.

The team will be based at the world renowned Sports Village at Potchefstroom. The Scottish XI will play a mixture of T20, 50 over and three day matches against South African domestic first class opposition such as the North West Dragons and the Gauteng Strikers, culminating in two one day matches against the highly rated Highveld Lions franchise team.

The tour has been made possible by the new ICC Targeted Assistance Performance Programme (TAPP). The TAPP fund is designed to improve the on-field performance of the lower ranked Full Members and the higher ranked Associate and Affiliate members. Cricket Scotland were one of the first two countries that were awarded support from the programme.

The Scots will use the trip to give their squad some much needed cricket prior to a crucial year in 2013. Next year presents the opportunity for Scotland to secure qualification for the World T20 in Bangladesh in 2014 and the 50 over Cricket World Cup which will be staged in Australia and New Zealand in early 2015.

Cricket Scotland Head of Performance Andy Tennant commented “The trip will give Head Coach Pete Steindl and his coaching team a great opportunity to work with and further develop the existing group, while also introducing some fresh blood into the squad.

The ICC TAPP funding and the support we receive from ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done is invaluable to us and we are confident that this support will help us continue to become more competitive and win matches at the very highest level.”

The Scotland XI squad for the tour will be announced in the next week.