Scotland enter
Keith Oliver, head of Cricket Scotland, has announced that Scotland have had their formal application to join the Cricket Dynasty program has been accepted and that they are now entering the highly competitive competition.
Before a room full of intrigued reporters, Oliver answered a wide range of questions, along with three other men alongside him. Two were well known Scottish billionaires, Sir Ian Wood, and Jim McColl, while the other, a rather tanned and rugged looking man, especially compared to the two tycoons alongside him, was later revealed by Oliver to be the captain of the side, Australian-born Reiley Guest.
"Guest brings with us an extensive knowledge of the game, his skills and leadership are exactly what this country will need if we are to contend with the top nations in the world. And I assure you, although he might've been born in Australia, he is most definitely Scottish to the bone."
Much speculation was made of why Wood and McColl were in attendance at the announcement, however Oliver quickly shot any rumours down when it was revealed they were the benefactors of the side,
"After our performance at the 2007 World Cup, Scottish cricket went under for a reevaluation, and from that necessary plans were put in to help fast track the competitiveness of the national side, as well as ensuring the stabling growth of junior cricket. One area that was identified as needing a fair bit of work was funding, and ambitiously,nee set out to find quite wealthy people who would be able to support us, in that you can see why Sir Ian and Jim are here today."
From this point of the conference, Guest, who'd so far, managed to go wordless for the preceding duration, spoke.
"Sir Ian and Jim have contributed massively to Scottish cricket, they financed our national cricket centre, which contains our largest stadium, the newly renovated Grange ground, which can now hold 12,000 spectators, and which we hope will gain test status in the coming weeks. Alongside that, we can proudly claim to have our own first class competition, which consists of five teams, playing competitively throughout our summer. This competition results in around 12 first class matches, 16 list A and 18 T20 matches, which is a six team competition. Yes, at times the quality can dip, however former international players including the likes of Michael Clarke, Graeme Smith, Chris Gayle, Matt Prior, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chris Tremlett have spent varying lengths of time here to really test and develop our homegrown talent.
With the introduction of our domestic competitions, which are now in their third season, a large group of our players have turned professional, with many earning in the range of £40,000 to £75,000. Which allows all of us to not have to stress about bringing in a solid income.
Along with covering all the basics such as groundsmen and equipment for schools and clubs, and finding other sponsors to contribute to the cause, as well as financially growing our T20 franchise based competition, Sir Ian was kind enough to sponsor three of us, Norval Smith, Craig Harrington and myself, to spend two seasons playing first grade cricket in Australia for a New South Wales club, despite the fact I'm born in Victoria. From this, we really got a taste of the competitive nature of cricket we needed to compete with on a daily basis if we're to be successful in our pursuit.
I'm confident that the 18 man squad that has been selected for our first opponent, will do their country proud, and play the sort of game we've all been preparing for."
After the 'outburst', Oliver, with a sly grin, then announced the squad, while giving a small, basic insight into what each player was capable of:
Reiley Guest (captain), RHB
Finlay Smith, LHB
William Connolly, LHB
Angus Bond, RHB
Craig Harrington (gice, RHB
Callum Campbell, RHB
Seamus Lindsay, RHB
Kyle White, RHB
Alec MacLeod, LHB, RS
Laird Smith, RHB, RS
Angus Lindsay, RHB, RM
Billy Wallace (vice captain), RHB, RF
Sandy Brown, RHB, RM
Norval Smith, LHB, LS
Samir Singh, LHB, OS
Ainsley Lindsay, RHB, LMF
Alan Fraser, RHB, RMF
Evan Young, RHB, RMF
Oliver then allowed Wood and McColl to speak, and they discussed their investment, which was a more economical elaboration on Guest's message, before announcing their scheduling intentions. "So far, although we have been accepted, no one has entered into discussions with us, that was to be based on the decision, now that we have been accepted, we expect to hold numerous talks throughout the next few days, and will hopefully have a series planned in the next fortnight." As to who it might be, the billionaires were sceptical,
"It could be anyone, Sweden entered the competition only days prior, they also need their first opponent. A marketing dream would be England, that would really fire up our fast bowler, Billy "William" Wallace, as well as being a dream for a lot of the boys. However we'll take anyone, we are ready to show the world that we are a competitive cricketing nation."
And with that, it was over.
The coach, announced as Justin Langer, was not in attendance, due to a family commitment, was the only person missing.
Only time will tell how successful this Scottish pursuit will be.
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