“Just frustrating…”: Spinner Mark Watt on Scotland’s journey towards full-member status

London [UK], : Scotland spinner Mark Watt expressed his frustration with the team getting lack of fixtures against top full-member nations despite some fine performances in the ICC events and also added that the team is ticking all the right boxes to get a full-member status as a cricketing nation.

Scotland had an impressive ICC T20 World Cup campaign in West Indies and USA, finishing third in their Group B with two wins, a loss and a no result. Though their game against England was washed out, they batted well enough against the defending champions, scoring 90/0 in 10 overs before the game was called off. They notched big wins against Oman and Namibia and almost won it against Australia while defending 181 runs, losing the game by five wickets in a last-over thriller.

The team led by Gerhard Erasmus, has been an associate member of the ICC since 1994. There are nations not recognised as full members by the governing body of the sport, but cricket is well-established and organised there. The teams have to fulfil certain criteria related to governance, infrastructure and performance to become a full member and also get the Test-playing status.

While Scotland has finished near the bottom in all the 50-over World Cups they have played in 1999, 2007 and 2015 and are yet to win a game, their performances in T20 World Cups has been far better. They have featured in 2007, 2009, 2016, 2021, 2022 and 2024 tournaments and their performance this year is their best ever in an ICC competition.

Back in 2021, Scotland qualified for the Super 12 in the T20 World Cup and also defeated Bangladesh to top their group during the qualifiers for the next stage. In the 2022 edition held in Australia, Scotland did not make it to Super 12, missing out narrowly. However, they did manage to beat two-time champions West Indies and made sure they did not qualify further either.

Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, Watt said, “Yeah, to be honest. I am actually amazed how well we do in these competitions… It is just really frustrating. I feel like at every major competition, we do really well and people are like ‘wow, Scotland is actually pretty decent, they are doing really well.’ And then you do not see us again for the next two years. Then the exact same process happens again.”

“Hopefully with those games against England and Australia, obviously we did not win either of them, but we have shown what we can do and what we are capable of against these top tier names as well as beating the teams who we would be expected to beat. I feel like we have done all we can to put a point across about how good we are and that we do belong in that [Full Member] system,” he added.

The last time Scotland played against a Test-playing nation other than Ireland, outside of any ICC competition was against New Zealand back in July 2022. This year in September, Australia will be touring Scotland for a three-match T20I series, which marks the first-ever bilateral series between these two nations.

One of the conditions is that the boards wanting as full-member status should have “satisfactory women’s pathway structures in place”. This year, Scotland’s women’s team qualified for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup to be held in October.

“I feel like we are ticking all the right boxes,” Watt said on Scotland’s journey to full membership.

“The women’s side have done an unbelievable job in recent years. They have grown so quickly and qualifying for that World Cup is absolutely massive.”

“We just need to keep doing what we are doing and it is what all the guys chat about. We want to become a Full Member, especially before all our times have finished playing, we want to leave the shirt in a better place. That is our motto. To become a Full Member would mean so much to everyone in the team, that is what we have been working towards for the last God knows how many years. It would be something really special for us,” he added.

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