Scotland coach victim of players' whispering campaign

Peter Drinnen, the Scotland coach, has made it clear that he will fight to save his job, despite his position being undermined by a whispering campaign against him, allegedly launched by a number of his senior players.

Drinnen, who has been signed off work for a week with a chronic back condition by his employers, Cricket Scotland, and who will go to hospital for an MRI scan on Friday, admitted that he wasn't feeling "too flash" yesterday, but responded to mounting rumours that his contract will not be renewed in December with a robust defence of his stewardship.

"I have been incredibly hurt by how this has come about and all I can say is that I am passionate about Scottish cricket, I try to do the very best with whatever task I take on, and always try to deal with people in an open, honest and respectful manner," said Drinnen, prior to lighting the touch paper. "It appears that some of my players - and I stress it is only a few - haven't been able to pay me the same courtesy.

"I am not sure what is going to happen, but I will not stop giving 100% to my job and my players, and I can only hope that my boss and [the Cricket Scotland] board will see through what I believe to be happening again."

Drinnen was referring to the manner in which his predecessor, Andy Moles, also suffered death by a thousand whispers after steering Scotland to victory at the ICC Trophy in Dublin two years ago. Moles fell foul of a group of his most experienced players who questioned the Englishman's ability to move them to the next level and, ever since that incident, the feeling has grown that some in the Scotland camp believe they are more powerful than the coach: a state of affairs which has led to a culture of selective leaks being fed to certain media outlets, which eventually led to Moles' departure and now threatens to orchestrate the same finale to Drinnen's reign.

What isn't in doubt is that the timing of this particular story couldn't have arrived at a worse time, with Scotland poised to meet Pakistan at the Grange on Sunday, as the prelude to participating in a quadrangular tournament, alongside the West Indies, the Netherlands and Ireland, the hosts, next month. Subsquently, they tackle India at Titwood in August, before competing in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa the following month. Ideally, it should be a period to focus on the country's rising youngsters such as Qasim Sheikh, Ross Lyons, Calum MacLeod and Kyle Coetzer.

But instead, it seems that some of the players who used to take selection for granted two or three years ago are raging against the dying of the light and refusing to accept responsibility for the decline in their form, and the necessity of Drinnen encouraging the next generation.