Scotland's hopes rest on Richards hitting form (23 June 1999)

23 June 1999

Scotland's hopes rest on Richards hitting form

Keith Graham

Scotland's cricketers face a daunting task today when they face up to a Surrey team which includes no fewer than nine internationalists in their third round NatWest Trophy tie at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh.

After performing at times with great credit during their World Cup debut, the Scots are now looking to the future, so this is very much a team in transition.

Only four of the World Cup squad will play - it was five until Greig Williamson dropped out with a heel injury - and with skipper George Salmond unavailable because of work commitments, they will be led by Douglas Lockhart.

Lockhart missed out on World Cup selection but was a member of the squad which did so well to qualify in Malaysia by way of third place in the ICC Trophy in 1997. He will probably open the batting with Bryn Lockie, also a member of the Scottish squad in Malaysia.

Another of the Malaysia squad, Freuchie's Scott Gourlay, is recalled and will probably play with promising off-spinner Gregor Maiden likely to be 12th man.

With Gavin Hamilton and John Blain now back with their counties, James Brinkley and Asim Butt, who performed well in the World Cup, will share the main seam bowling duties with the in-form Craig Wright, another unlucky to miss out on World Cup selection.

Wright was Scotland's hero in last year's triumph over Worcestershire in the same competition when he took five for 25 and the man of the match award, also at Raeburn Place.

Keith Sheridan takes over the role of senior spinner in the absence of Nick Dyer and Ian Stanger may find himself sharing the fifth bowler duties with Gourlay.

However, the Clydesdale all-rounder, who has been in sparkling form with bat and ball for his club, knows that his principal role in the side is to hold the middle order batting together.

Free-scoring left-hander Drew Parsons, another who has been in good form with the bat, gets his chance to establish a place in the senior team together with Colin Smith, the lanky Aberdeenshire wicket-keeper batsman who wins his first cap in replacing Alec Davies, now retired. Smith, like Parsons, impressed in the recent B team outing against Durham University.

This new-look Scottish side, however, has a significant trump card in Corey Richards who makes his third appearance in the competition as Scotland's overseas professional.

The West of Scotland batsman is not unknown to the Surrey contingent who were members of the England squad in Australia last winter for he scored an unbeaten 160 against the tourists.

A regular in the New South Wales Sheffield Shield team, he has been in outstanding form for his club this season having scored 479 runs in six league innings, four of them not out, to give him an improbable average of 239.

Scotland will go into the game as rank outsiders against one of England's most powerful county sides but if Richards can hit top form, an upset is certainly not out of the question.

Elsewhere, Andrew Tweedie, a South African paceman who is playing for Old Hill in the Birmingham League, is in the Herefordshire side for their historic first home tie in the competition against Yorkshire at Kington.

The Durham Board XI use Andrew Hall, a South African, against Gloucestershire, while Cumberland select Terry Hunte, a West Indian-born batsman, in their tie with Sussex.

Cumberland, who also have a cluster of former first-class players in John Glendenen, Ashley Metcalfe, Steve O'Shaughnessy, David Pennett and Marcus Sharp, have made their best start to a season for years, winning all six one-day games in the NatWest Trophy and ECB 38-County Cup. However, Sussex can also point to five straight wins in the National League.

Warwickshire's Allan Donald is unlikely to play against Buckinghamshire at Marlow, but will be there in a coaching capacity in the absence of Phil Neale, who has taken a couple day's leave in the wake of the news that Bob Woolmer is to return to Edgbaston. Dominic Cork is missing from the Derbyshire line-up against Bedfordshire at Luton and there is no Michael Atherton in the Lancashire team who make their first defence of the trophy against Hertfordshire at Radlett.

Alan Ormrod, the former Lancashire coach, is now director of cricket at Hertfordshire, and captain Nick Gilbert said: "I've played in four of these games before and they are a bit like getting married because you forget most of them."

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph