Mark Watt: We’ve Done All We Can To Show We Deserve Full Member Status | Cricket News Today

Scotland’s Mark Watt has labelled Scotland’s lack of regular fixtures against top tier international sides “frustrating” and voiced his hopes for the side to gain Full Membership during his career.

Scotland beat both Oman and Namibia in Group B of the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup, and were on the front foot against England before rain curtailed a result. They also came out on the wrong side of a tight match against table-toppers Australia, the winning runs hit with just two balls to spare. Scotland finished on equal points with England in the group, but went out with an inferior net run rate. Their performance in the competition has driven questions over what they could achieve if they regularly played against the world’s best sides.

Asked on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast whether Scotland deserve more opportunities against Full Member sides, left-arm spinner Watt said: “Yeah, to be honest. I’m actually amazed how well we do in these competitions… It’s just really frustrating. I feel like at every major competition, we do really well and people are like ‘wow, Scotland are actually pretty decent, they’re doing really well.’ And then you don’t see us again for the next two years. Then the exact same process happens again.”

Scotland qualified for the Super 12 in the 2021 T20 World Cup, beating Bangladesh to finish top of their group. They also narrowly missed out on the second round of the 2022 edition, but beat the West Indies by 42 runs in the first round. They are currently the 12th highest ranked side in the ICC’s men’s T20I team rankings.

The last time Scotland played a Full Member other than Ireland outside of an ICC tournament was New Zealand back in July 2022. They have a three-match series against Australia scheduled for September this year. 

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

Scotland are currently an ICC Associate Member. Associate Members are the governing bodies for cricket of a country recognised by the ICC which do not qualify as a Full Member, but where cricket is firmly established and organised. The ICC has several criteria in order for a side to qualify for Full Membership, which include covering infrastructure, governance and performance.

They also stipulate that a board must “have satisfactory women’s pathway strcutures in place.” Scotland’s women’s T20I team recently qualified for the 10-team women’s T20 World Cup later this year, reaching the competition ahead of full member sides Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan – whose women’s side have never played a T20I.

“I feel like we’re ticking all the right boxes,” Watt said on Scotland’s path to Full Membership. “The women’s side have done an unbelievable job in recent years. They’ve grown so quickly and qualifying for that World Cup is absolutely massive.

“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing and it’s 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’s our motto. To become a Full Member would mean so much to everyone in the team, that’s what we’ve been working towards for the last God knows how many years. It would be something really special for us.”

Follow Wisden for all T20 World Cup updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights and video analysis.