Hamilton calls for change

Gavin Hamilton has revealed his concern over the future of the Scotland side

Scotland captain Gavin Hamilton believes it is a matter of urgency to find the players capable of returning them to the world stage.

Hamilton’s men bowed out of the ICC World Twenty20 yesterday and, having failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, their participation at the highest level will be limited in the coming years.

The Scots won the backing of The Oval crowd for their stirring performance against New Zealand on Saturday but then suffered the second-biggest defeat in Twenty20 international history - a 130-run hammering - against South Africa.

“Big games like these are going to run out unless we do something about it,” Hamilton urged. “Cricket is going at a huge rate of knots and unless we keep up the gap is going to get bigger.

“Things must change. We need an academy and that is where our players all have to come from eventually.

“There are half a dozen players in the next couple of years who will be finishing.

“If we get players at 16 or 17 and look after them for four or five years they will be pushing for Scotland.”

Cricket Scotland is already funding an academy scheme at Telford College, Edinburgh, with the first intake of eight youngsters sent to Australia for three months over the winter.

Those players also feature for Scotland Lions, the reserve side who participate in the Second XI Championship.

At the highest level, Scotland face Canada and Ireland in four-day Intercontinental Cup matches in Aberdeen and also play both opponents in two one-day internationals.

They then face Australia in a one-day international at the end of August and head to Dubai in October for qualifying for next spring's World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

“We have got to win and win convincingly against associate nations,” Hamilton warned. “That is the next step because by our own admission we are falling behind them and it is genuinely somewhere where Scotland as a nation should not be.

“It is finding the personnel now who are going to be able to do these things we have witnessed this week, in pressure situations.

“Improvements do have to be made whether that be in personnel or in characters.

“We will have to assess the breakdown in the next couple of weeks.

“Twenty20 qualification - this has been an absolutely priceless experience and we don't want to miss out on things like this in the future.”