John Blain to mentor young Scotland fast bowlers

John Blain, the former Scotland seamer, has taken on a part-time role to groom the country's young fast bowlers. Blain had previously worked with Yorkshire in English county cricket and is currently the head coach of Eastern Knights in Scottish domestic cricket.

"I'm delighted to accept this role and be a part of the newly formed performance coaching team," Blain said. "To be given the responsibility of developing the next generations of pace bowlers in Scotland excites me. I see this as an opportunity to put into practice my experiences at both playing level and my formative years at Yorkshire as club bowling coach and through my Level IV. "

The 37-year-old will combine the role of lead pace bowling coach with overseeing the Eastern Knights and coaching at Grange CC and Loretto School, near Edinburgh.

Andy Tennant, the Cricket Scotland performance director, welcomed Blain's appointment. "We are delighted to have John on board in a coaching capacity," he said. "He is an outstanding young coach and we are looking forward to putting his skills to work in identifying and developing our best young pace bowlers, while supporting the development of the Eastern Regional Performance Programme as head coach."

Blain made his Scotland debut as a 20-year old in the 1999 World Cup against Australia. He took 41 wickets at an average of 28.60 in 33 ODIs and 143 wickets in 102 List A matches, as well as more than 80 first-class wickets in England during spells with Yorkshire and Northamptonshire.

His international career spanned a decade but came to an abrupt end when he walked out on Scotland on the eve of the 2009 World T20 following a serious fallout with then captain Gavin Hamilton.