Scotland aim to gauge how far they have come

Pakistan's tour kicks off in a very low key way at Edinburgh today with a one-day international against Scotland. While south of the border, the football World Cup dominates the news, the fact that England are still in the competition has rather dampened interest to the north. For one day, at least, it's cricket that matters more.

A year ago, the visit of Australia for an ODI promised to be the biggest day in Scottish cricket. A capacity crowd packed the Grange, BBC TV gave the game full coverage ... but then it rained and the match was washed out without a ball being bowled. Today, the weather it set to be better, but with the BBC wrapped up in the World Cup and Wimbledon, there is no TV coverage anywhere and, as such, the game will barely attract passing interest outside the two countries involved.

That won't make it any less of a contest. Pakistan want to hit the ground running as they face England in the opening Test of the four-match series in 16 days' time, while for Scotland this signals the start of their World Cup run-in.

Although Scotland have played Pakistan once before - they lost by 94 runs in the 1999 World Cup - the game is their first since the ICC changed the rules to allow the six leading Associates to play full ODIs against the ten Test-playing countries. In the seven years since the previous meeting, Scotland have won the ICC Trophy, the ICC's Intercontinental Cup, and are serious contenders to be considered the best of the rest. This will be a real examination of how far they have come.

The pitch promises to be full of runs - it produced almost 600 in the C&G Trophy match at the weekend - and while that should favour Pakistan's array of strokemakers, Pakistan team manger Zaheer Abbas admitted that his players were still jetlagged after a long journey from Karachi to Peebles. Scotland's selectors have also recognised that runs will be the key, opting for an extra batsman.