Roddy Smith, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland, has dismissed suggestions that the Scots and Irish teams risk being booted out of the Friends Provident Trophy because of conflict with the ECB over the staging of so-called "offshore" matches.
Smith did reveal that an ongoing row between the Indian broadcaster, Zee TV, and the Indian cricket board, threatens to act as the catalyst for the cancellation of the high-profile meetings between Scotland and Pakistan on July 1 in Edinburgh and the India-Pakistan game in Glasgow two days later.
"It's no secret that the ECB is concerned about the staging of offshore matches in Britain, because of the possibility of clashes between broadcasting schedules, but we have been in negotiations with the ECB, these have been very cordial, and I have no reason to think that we won't be in the FPT next season, along with Ireland," said Smith yesterday.
"Basically, this issue with India and Pakistan has nothing to do with the ECB. The problems have arisen elsewhere, with the decision of Zee TV to pull out of broadcasting the game, as they have also done with the proposed Tri-Nations series, involving West Indies, South Africa and Ireland, which I understand is now dead in the water.
"But, as things stand, I am pretty confident the two games will go ahead in Scotland on July 1 and 3. I accept that if the India-Pakistan fixture doesn't happen, then neither will our meeting with Pakistan, but the former is a charity occasion to commemorate the 60th year of India's independence, it has been organised in conjunction with the Prince of Wales, and it is such a big game that I am optimistic it will find another broadcaster in the next few weeks. Certainly, all of us at Cricket Scotland are working on the basis it will happen, and there is already a lot of interest in this match from all over Britain."
nSouth African-born Jan Stander fell short of a debut century as Scotland enjoyed their best day since entering the Second XI County Championship, writes William Dick.
The all-rounder stroked 97 to help the Scots reach 278 against Lancashire at Alderley Edge. The Stoneywood-Dyce player-coach came to the crease with the Scots on 84-5 and shared half-century stands with Majid Haq (35) and Umair Mohammed (38). Lancs had reached 9-0 at the close.
nSanjay Patel, son of SCU president Mahendra, faces a ban after being accused of dissent during an SNCL match against Carlton last weekend. The Grange player is alleged to have abused umpire Billy McPate and Carlton batsman Jamie Kerr after an appeal for a catch was turned down. The disciplinary panel are to hear the case today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article