What right do Scotland have to play in the men's World Cup? Or the Netherlands? Won't they have the stuffing batted, bowled and fielded out of them and be put on the first flight home after the group stage?

Rather than those no-hopers, why aren't two of West Indies, Ireland or Zimbabwe going to the global showpiece in India in October and November? Simply, because they haven't been good enough in the qualifiers in Harare and Bulawayo in the past two-and-a-half weeks. And the Scots and the Dutch have been good enough.

The Windies lost to Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and Scotland. Ireland went down to Oman, the Scots and Sri Lanka. The hosts reeled off five victories, then