Reifer joins Saltire's squad

There have been a number of enforced changes to the Scottish Saltires squad to play Worcestershire Royals at Grange CC on Wednesday.

Craig Wright, Saltire's captain, is injured and will be replaced by Stewart Bruce. Simon Smith will be taking over as wicket-keeper following the injury of his namesake Colin Smith, and Ian Stanger has had to pull out because of time constraints and work commitments. He will be replaced by Gregor Maiden.

Meanwhile, Yasir Arafat will be missing from the squad for the games against Sussex Sharks on July 4 and Middlesex Crusaders on July 5, as he will be on Pakistan national squad duty. Should he be selected for the Pakistan squad to go to the Asia Cup, he could be away for a further four weeks and would miss at least one other Totesport League game.

In his absence, Floyd Reifer, who played four Tests and two one-day internationals for the West Indies between 1997 and 1999, has been invited into the squad. Reifer, who is currently playing as Uddingston's professional, is a powerful all-rounder who knows British cricketing conditions well. His cousin George, also an Uddingston player, has also played cricket for Scotland.

Despite his brief international career, Reifer has 92 first-class matches under his belt, and with a batting average of 35 and a double-hundred to his name, his experience will be an added bonus to the Saltires squad.

Saltires squad against Sussex Sharks and Middlesex Crusaders Craig Wright (capt), Stewart Bruce, Asim Butt, Cedric English, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart, Gregor Maiden, Dewald Nel, Bruce Patterson, Floyd Reifer, Sridharan Sriram, Simon Smith (wk), Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.