FORGET last week’s Ashes finale, the biggest weekend of the cricket season starts today.
Whether Australia see it that way I would doubt, but any meeting with the world champions is the big event.
Scotland go into the game at The Grange in Edinburgh minus all their county professionals – a situation which is not ideal. But the loss of the in-form Kyle Coetzer will be hardest felt, such is his class.
It is a difficult situation for him, weighing up his club versus country commitments. He is a proud Scot and wants to play for a successful Scotland team, but he also wants a career playing cricket which can only be offered in England and with his county Durham.
With Durham pushing for the county championship and the Pro40 Cup, there is a lot to play for at the back end of this season and he is central part of that team. As Scotland take the field against Australia, so he will be taking the field for Durham in a vital Pro40 game against Sussex.
Which is the more important? Difficult to say but I know if I was in his shoes I would be doing exactly the same.
TODAY’S one-day international is a mere warm-up to the main event of the weekend as Aberdeenshire strive to win the double of the Premier League and Scottish Cup.
It is a feat never before achieved by Shire in the new format and one they can achieve by beating Uddingston at Mannofield tomorrow and then Dunfermline on Sunday down in Ayr.
I think of what the club has achieved already this season and I need to pinch myself.
The young players have been immense and announced themselves as not only good club players but potential internationals. The likes of Tyler Buchan and Chris West have proven to be quality bowlers and, backed up by the experience of Kevin Thomson and the skill of Todd Astle’s leg-spin, there have not been many occasions when the control of the game has been taken away from us.
This has meant the batsmen have been chasing totals always within reach and, from one to 11, every player has stepped up and at various times played a match-winning innings in a pressure situation. But nothing has been won yet and there will be a few more pressure situations before the weekend is out.
Uddingston are no mugs and their mid-table standing does not flatter them. With the likes of Paul Hoffmann still hovering at the top of the league wicket-takers, they cannot be taken lightly.
Dunfermline are a dangerous side with batsmen keen to hit the ball high and hard – a tactic which can destroy bowling attacks and something they have done a lot of.
It is set up nicely. Now all we need is the weather.