Over the next few days the Scotland under-19 squad, led by skipper James Dickinson who came through the ranks at Loretto School and Mazars Grange, are involved in Cricket World Cup qualifiers in Jersey.
Scotland, Denmark, Jersey an Ireland will play each other in a double round robin to see who will progress to the main event in New Zealand next year.
Dickinson, 18, is now in the Academy set-up at Leicestershire while his fellow school and Grange team mate Finlay McCreath has taken a similar route and is now at Warwickshire.
The under-19s have been in good form already this season with two wins against the Development XI and a 3-0 series win against the already qualified Namibia in Stirling last week.
Dickinson, whose family live in East Lothian, go the cricket bug when he was at Loretto in Musselburgh and things went from there.
“We were lucky enough to play a lot of sports at school, but cricket was the one that grabbed my attention and we were lucky enough to have some very good coaches there,” he recounts.
“I also began playing for Grange and being able to train with the seniors, some of whom were Scotland caps, was really good for my development.
“At one stage I was playing a match for Scotland under-17 against Leicestershire under-17s and at the end of it their coach came up to me and said he was impressed by how I had played and offered me a trial down there.
“From that trial came the opportunity to join their Academy structure while I have also been exposed to some second XI cricket which has tested me and helped me progress.”
The all-rounder believes he has a good set of players at his disposal and said: “A lot of the under-19 guys are in form and we are a close-knit unit, so I am looking forward to the qualifiers.”
McCreath, also 18, was brought up in Berwick-upon-Tweed and used to watch his father playing for the local cricket team in the town.
The all-rounder said: “I used to enjoy watching dad play and was involved at the local club and when I moved up to Loretto in my early teens my cricket took off under the watchful eye of coach Mike Powell, who was a former professional, and I loved it from there.
“I managed to play a few first XI matches for Grange while still at school and that was a great buzz while over the last couple of years while I have been at Rugby School down south my game has come on a level whilst being able to train with some top quality players at Warwickshire.
“Playing for Scotland is always a massive honour and I think that we can go to Jersey and be successful, there is a good balance in the team.”
Scotland start against Denmark today.
Squad: James Dickinson (Leicestershire, C), Aliyan Qureshi (Clydesdale), Angus Beattie (Carlton), Angus Hinton (Carlton), Callum Garden (Forfarshire), Finlay McCreath (Warwickshire), Haroon Tahir (Ferguslie), Ihtisham Malik (Poloc), John Oliver (Glasgow Accies), Oliver Brown (Watsonians), Rory Johnston (Forfarshire), Owais Shah (Poloc), Tom Diamond (Aberdeenshire), William Hardie (Forfarshire).
