Scotland captain Gavin Hamilton is still hopeful they can become a force in world cricket despite their early exit from the World Twenty20.

The Scots began the tournament with a decent performance in a rain-hit seven-wicket defeat to New Zealand before being trounced by South Africa.

The Scots were humbled by 130 runs by Graeme Smith's men to crash out of the tournament and raise question marks over their future.

But Hamilton said: "We've got the next Twenty20 qualifiers coming up in the UAE later this year and this experience has been absolutely priceless ahead of that.

"Playing in big tournaments is what we all want but we can't keep making excuses and we know we've got to get better.

"I believe we will do that but we've got to get the results to prove it."

Scotland only qualified for the competition because of the withdrawal of Zimbabwe, after they finished third behind the Netherlands and Ireland at the qualifiers in Stormont last August.

And the former Yorkshire star believes his team won't make the same mistakes again.

"By the time the qualifiers come around in October we will be a better team and better people too," added Hamilton.

"We don't want to miss out on chances to play in big tournaments in the future, they only benefit our development."