Scotland chief executive quits

Gwynne Jones has left his role as chief executive of Cricket Scotland.

Jones, a Zimbabwean, has fulfilled the role for the last two years, and was instrumental in winning Scotland a place in the one-day National League last summer, and the subsequent signing of Indian Test star Rahul Dravid.

Keith Oliver, Cricket Scotland chairman, thanked Jones for his work: "Without Gwynne, the profile of Scottish cricket would not have been raised to its current level."

However, Jones had recently been criticised for not bringing enough money into Scottish cricket and his departure follows a week of speculation about his position. "Gwynne told me he feels he has completed his main objectives," added Oliver, "which were to promote the game using his international contacts, to professionalise the management and to prepare the way for Scotland to become a full one-day international nation in the medium term and a Test-playing nation in the long term."

Jones' exit comes just a month before Scotland's participation in the ICC Six Nations Challenge tournament in the United Arab Emirates. The prize for the winners is the mouth-watering prospect of taking on the major cricket-playing nations in September's ICC Champions Trophy in England.