In Scotland when we think ‘World Cup’, visions of Pele, Maradona, Zidane and, of course, Gemmill banging in spectacular goals flicker into our minds.  Every four years our summers are lit up by the fleet-footed geniuses of the beautiful game.  But we haven’t had the pleasure of cheering Scotland in a FIFA World Cup for quite some time now.

But nowadays football isn’t the only sport with a high profile World Cup.  Rugby has come to the fore in the past 20 years, and this month sees the 9th ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.  And Scotland are going to be there, led by long-standing captain, Craig Wright.

This will be his first World Cup, as captain and as a player.  He missed the cut in 1999, and Scotland failed to qualify in 2003.  So he is up for it.  Really up for it.  And what better challenge for a man like Wright than for their first two games of the tournament to be against the top two One Day International teams in the World:  South Africa (ranked No 1 in the world) and Australia (No 2 and defending World Champions).

Meanwhile, in Scotland, cricket is still amateur, so a top ranking spot may not be in Craig’s plans yet, but that doesn’t make tracking him down any easier, as he is also the marketing manager for Cricket Scotland as well as their national captain.  Quite an advertisement indeed. (Barry Ferguson in a shirt and tie at Hampden Monday to Friday?  Not on your Nelly!)  Thankfully In The Winning Zone has managed to drag Craig away from his desk for a few moments to chat about the World Cup.

So does Craig think his boys can take the mighty Aussies, who they play in their opening match of the tournament on March 14?  “I think, obviously, percentages would count against us, but I watched Bangladesh beat Australia last year in Cardiff, and we have beaten Bangladesh, so on any given day these things can happen.”

Craig is obviously a logical and optimistic thinker.  And he certainly has confidence in his team.   But then Scottish cricket has made remarkable progress in recent years, particularly under the dual leadership of Wright as captain and head coach Peter Drinnen, himself an Aussie.  But Wright, modestly, is full of praise for his team as a whole: “It has probably taken a lot of things on different levels, but fundamentally it has taken a good cricket team and good players.  And we have a good group in terms of team spirit.” 

What may also be fundamental to his team’s chances against the reigning champions is the fact that many of the squad have experience of foreign (including Australian and South African) cricket, and Wright hopes that this will be of benefit come match day: “A lot of the success we have had in the past few years isn’t only down to having good quality players, but they also have a lot of experience playing in tough environments overseas.”

And it is probably quite fair to say that not many Australians or South Africans could boast the same knowledge of Scottish cricket.  Recently the Scots have also accumulated a few scalps against opposition much closer to home: “In the past four years we have had a few wins against English county teams, who play at a good level.  All these things thrown into the mix have created, certainly at a Scottish level, a reasonably successful team.”

Of course Craig Wright is aware that even with all these circumstances in place, his team are still major underdogs for the opening two tests.  Their realistic target, he says, is to perform to their best against the two behemoths of international cricket, and then go for the jugular against the Netherlands in their final group game.

“We will take the field against Australia and South Africa with the intention of doing everything we can to win, but the odds are massively stacked against us.  So I think from our point of view a satisfactory World Cup and what we are aiming for is to beat the Netherlands, obviously, and in an overall sense really show the cricketing world that Scotland are a good team.  If that means putting up a good performance against South Africa and Australia and losing, obviously we will be disappointed but, if we can compete well in those two games, it is a massive feather in our cap.”

And he believes that his team is capable of rising to the challenge.  Wright feels that the time has come to step up and compete with the best, regardless of whether the sport is rich or poor, amateur or professional in Scotland:  “We are trying raise the bar in terms of what we expect from ourselves personally and what we expect from the team.  I think in the past people may have used the fact that we are amateurs as an excuse for under-performance.  Of course while people have other jobs it makes it difficult [to compete against full professionals] but we are certainly in the position of trying to make ‘high performance’ as ‘high’ as we can, considering the circumstances we have.”

What stands out about Wright’s attitude as captain of a minor national side are two qualities that would be admirable in the captain of any team in the world.  He is positive and he is honest.  That is what all coaches desire in their captain, and what any player would look for in the person they are looking to for leadership.

And he is positively honest about the attitude to losing he often witnesses in his home country:  “Negativity is an unfortunate characteristic of sport here.  We accept defeat too easily and we are perceived to be good losers, and that isn’t something that gets you very far at high level sport.”

He referred to Scotland’s first World Cup opponents, Australia, as an example of a sporting society which people in Scotland should take heed of: “There is a different mentality and a different sporting culture. I think the Australian sporting culture comes from the fact that sport is just very much embedded in what they do as a nation.  It is quite upsetting when I see our attitudes towards sport, it is seen as a secondary activity in Scotland, whereas in Australia it is very much a primary objective.”

When quizzed about his own attitude to winning, he stated: “I don’t enjoy it when we lose.  The enjoyment for me comes from playing well.  I enjoy cricket for what it is, but true enjoyment for me comes from achievement on a team and personal level.”

Craig certainly isn’t going to take his team the whole way to the Caribbean to lose.  He will want his boys to enjoy themselves and be proud of their achievements.  So there is no doubt that when they take to the field in St Kitts & Nevis on March 14, they will be playing to win.  Winning may not be everything, but wanting to win is.

RO

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