Scotland name WCL squad

Scotland's cricket selectors have named a 15-man squad for the next stage of their winter touring season overseas, up to and including the important World Cricket League in Kenya.

Omitted from the squad is batsman Omer Hussain. National coach Peter Drinnen said: "With 16 players and only 15 allowed in our party, Omer is the unlucky spare batsman left out after we decided to take all the spinners and Dewald Nel, who returns from injury, as a seam option.

"But it is important for me to emphasise that this selection is only for this tour, with the balance of the squad chosen to match the needs of the tournaments we are facing. Omer has had a very good experience at the Winter Training Camp in Pretoria during the autumn, and is still in the frame for the final World Cup squad, which will be selected after we return from the World Cricket League."

This unprecedented winter programme starts with the four-day Intercontinental Cup tie against the United Arab Emirates, starting on January 11 in Sharjah. Victory would take the Scots into the final of the tournament for the second time in its three-year history. But it is still theoretically possible for either Scotland, or Ireland, or the UAE to line-up against Canada, who have already qualified for the final from the other pool.

The next port of call for Scotland is Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean seaboard, where a tri-series of One-Day International matches against Kenya and Canada will take place, each nation playing twice against the other two. Scotland play against the hosts on January 17 and 21, and against Canada on January 18 and 23.

All three teams then move to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, for the first World Cricket League Division One championship, involving all six Associate nations which are participating in the World Cup in the West Indies in March. The WCL starts on January 30, with the final on February 7. Scotland's matches are against Ireland (Jan 30), Canada (Jan 31), the Netherlands (Feb 2), Kenya (Feb 4) and Bermuda (Feb 5).

Scotland squad Craig Wright (capt), John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Dougie Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.