A Cricket Espana XI will take on a very strong Cricket Scotland XI in a T-Twenty exhibition game at La Manga resort on Thursday 15th November, start time 11 am.
At the ICC Conference in Dublin this summer both of the countries CEO’s (John Howden of Spain and Malcolm Cannon of Scotland) discussed the possibility of some kind of interaction between the two countries whenever Scotland use their warm weather training base on the Murcia coastline.
True to their word, Cricket Scotland contacted Cricket Espana last month about the possibility of an exhibition game at their end of their current visit and the hosts were eager to jump at the chance of playing against such quality opposition.
The Scotland training camp will primarily focus on four key disciplines (the development of power hitting, batting against spin, bowling skills, and leadership) and then the visitors will look to put into practice what they have learnt on the camp in their match against Spain.
It is the first time the two countries have played against each other but Glenrothes Cricket Club are regular visitors to Sporting Alfas and Cricket Espana played two matches against Aberdeenshire Cricket Club in April 2009.
Wicket Keeper batsman Matthew Cross played for the Scottish club side on that day and is in the squad along with seven of the other players who participated in their amazing One Day International victory over England in June this year. The squad is also peppered with members of the Scottish Performance Academy who the coaches believe have the potential to play for the senior team one day.
The back room staff is also littered with notables from the cricket world. Acting Head Coach Toby Bell is joined by the high performance manager Simon Smith. Andy Tennant will head the spin sessions and Gordon Drummond is in charge of the pace bowling group. Physio Mairi MacPhail and performance coordinator Jonathan Newell are the final members of the core staff.
The power hitting sessions will be under the guidance of Julian Wood, Gloucestershire coach Owen Dawkins and Kent’s Darren Stevens. Finally the leadership sessions will be led by Louise Finlayson who has previously worked with the Performance Academy.
Cricket Espana rely heavily on the team that competed in the ICC Tournament in Holland this year when they finished a creditable third behind Italy and Jersey in Group B.
The side will have a mixture of players from the Cataluyna and ECCL (East Coast & Central) leagues and Christian Munoz-Mills will captain the side. One addition to the team is Madrid United all-rounder Taqueer Hussain, who now meets the criteria to participate in future ICC sanctioned tournaments.
Ed Shuttleworth, the ICC Development Manager for Europe recently commented whilst in Scotland on a country visit, ” Congratulations to Cricket Scotland and Cricket Espana for proactively working in partnership and connecting their cricket communities. It is brilliant to see more competitive opportunities and we wish both teams the best of luck for the day”.
Entrance to the ground is free and La Manga Cricket Club members will be serving snacks and beverages next to the pitch.
Squads …
Cricket Espana XI
| Ahmed Awais | Batter/Keeper | RH Top Order | |
| Alger Adam | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Seamer |
| Adeel Raja | All Rounder | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Asjad Mohammad | Seamer | RH Top Order | |
| Hennessy Paul | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Seamer |
| Haider Zulqarnain | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Hussain Taqueer | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Lal Kuldeep | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Munoz Chris | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Spin |
| Panchal Ravi | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Perman Jack | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Leg Spin |
| Perman Kieran | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Roper Jamie | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Vini Vinod | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
Cricket Scotland XI
| Berrington, Richard | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Medium |
| Bradburn, Thomas | All Rounder | LH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Brock, Andrew | Spinner | LH Lower Order | LA Off Spin |
| Cameron, Scott | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Carson, Michael | Batter | RH Top Order | RA Leg Spin |
| Coetzer, Kyle | Batter | RH Top Order | |
| Cross, Matthew | Batter/Keeper | RH Top Order | |
| Dickinson, James | All Rounder | RH Middle Order | RA Leg Spin |
| English, Michael | Batter | RH Top Order | |
| Evans, Alasdair | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Greaves, Christopher | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Leg Spin |
| Johnston, Rory | Batter | RH Top Order | |
| Jones, Michael | Batter | RH Opener | RA Off Spin |
| McCreath, Finlay | All Rounder | RH Top Order | RA Seamer |
| Munsey, Henry | Batter | LH Top Order | RA Leg Spin |
| Neill, Adrian | Seamer | RH Lower Order | RA Seamer |
| Robertson, Christian | Seamer | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Shah, Owais | All Rounder | LH Top Order | RA Off Spin |
| Sharif, Safyaan | Seamer | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Smith, Ruaidhri | Seamer | RH Middle Order | RA Seamer |
| Sole, Thomas | Spinner | RH Middle Order | RA Off Spin |
| Tahir, Hamza | Spinner | RH Lower Order | LA Off Spin |
| Tahir, Haroon | All Rounder | RH Lower Order | RA Off Spin |
| Wallace, Craig | Batter/Keeper | RH Middle Order | |
| Watt, Mark | Spinner | LH Middle Order | LA Off Spin |
| Wood, Joshua | Batter/Keeper/Spinner | RH Top Order | RA Off Spin/WK |
Related Article … Cricket Espana XI v Aberdeenshire CC – April 2009
https://www.cricketspain.es/news.php?id=529
