The first ever professional contracts to have been awarded to Scotland-qualified cricketers by Cricket Scotland were announced today.

Apart from the three existing professional county cricketers - Kyle Coetzer at Durham and Navdeep Poonia and Calum MacLeod at Warwickshire - three other Scots will become full-time professionals: Scotland captain Ryan Watson and pace bowlers Dewald Nel and Gordon Goudie.

The remaining 19 members of the winter training squad (fully listed below) have been offered part-time contracts at three different levels, to mesh with their existing alternative employment plans.

This means that, instead of having around ten cricketers in receipt of modest ‘retainer’ payments, the entire squad of players will be contracted to Cricket Scotland for the first time, and will have training obligations and duties to perform.

The professionalisation of the squad has been made possible by an increased grant of $350,000 to Associate member countries from the high-performance programme of the International Cricket Council.

If Scotland qualify for the 2011 World Cup, further funds will be forthcoming from the ICC, which will result in additional members of the squad becoming full-time professionals.

The players’ basic payments will be supplemented by an improved match fee for those who are selected to play, and a system of win bonuses from successful games and tournaments.

Scotland captain Ryan Watson said: "This is truly a historic development for Scottish cricket, and I am proud to be able to lead this squad to the World Cup qualifier, and to show what we can do in the T20 tournament in England next year.

"Professionalisation is the right move at this moment. It’s the most important next step in the development of the game in Scotland. And it’s an incentive for the younger lads who can now see the improved possibilities of making a career in the sport, if they work hard and perform well."

Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland’s chief executive, added: ""The ICC have made a bold move in increasing the resources to all Associates members by a significant amount, with the higher-ranked members gaining the most.

"With the support of the ICC, sportscotland and our commercial partners - especially Lloyds TSB Scotland - we have grown our sport and business considerably in recent years.

"Scotland cricketers have for a number of years been amateurs competing on a professional stage. We have managed to move this situation forward slowly in recent years, but we hope, with this announcement, we are starting to offer our players career paths in the game, or an opportunity to play cricket alongside another career."

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The 25 members of the Scotland winter training squad are (those marked * are wintering abroad on Racionzer scholarships): John Blain, Richard Berrington*, Kyle Coetzer, Gordon Drummond, Gordon Goudie, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Omer Hussain, Moneeb Iqbal, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons*, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum, Calum MacLeod, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Qasim Sheikh*, Colin Smith, Simon Smith, Jan Stander, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Sean Weeraratna, Craig Wright.