Cricket Scotland appoints Douglas Watson as interim head coach of men's team

Cricket Scotland released an official statement announcing Douglas Watson as the interim head coach. "Cricket Scotland is delighted to announce Doug Watson as the Interim Head Coach of the Scotland Men's squad," read the statement by Cricket Scotland.

Doug, who is currently the head coach for male performance with the Auckland Aces, will start work with Cricket Scotland on April 8 and is contracted until July 31.

During his period as the interim men's head coach, Scotland will compete in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe and in the 2024 World T20 Europe Qualifiers, which are being held this July in Edinburgh.

"Firstly, I'm really thankful to everyone at Auckland Cricket for allowing me to pursue this opportunity with Cricket Scotland," said Doug, adding, "It's a wonderful chance for me to coach another country, and Scotland's Men have been doing really well over the last four years.

"I'm looking forward to carrying on and developing the great work that Shane Burger has put in here. I know Shane well, he's worked really hard to help get Scotland to where they are, and it was great to see them lift the CWCL2 trophy last week in Nepal," he said.

"I know it's obviously a short period of time that I'll be in charge, but there's two massive tournaments coming up which will be tough for us, especially the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June. But it's also an exciting time as well - I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be fun," he added.

Doug brings with him a wealth of experience and success across all levels of cricket. As a player in South Africa, he represented Kwa-Zulu Natal, becoming their all-time most-capped player, and gained international recognition with South Africa A.

After moving into coaching, Doug was Head Coach of Namibia from 2012 and 2015, and he's also worked with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, the Wellington Firebirds in New Zealand, and served as Head Coach of Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland.

He became Auckland's head coach last June, signing a three-year contract. This followed a successful previous spell there as Assistant Head Coach when he helped the team win the Ford Trophy domestic 50-over competition in 2020.

Just last month, Doug stepped in as Batting Coach for the New Zealand Men's Test squad during their recent series against England.

Interim Head of Performance, Toby Bailey, said: "I'm delighted to welcome Doug to Cricket Scotland. We conducted a very thorough hiring process and looked at around forty-five candidates. We wanted someone who'd been previously involved with coaching smaller teams, with Associate Cricket, with experience of World Cup Qualifying competitions, with knowledge of top-level cricket, and with experience of Zimbabwe."

"Doug really fit the bill in all those cases. We had some of the Men's players on the interview panel, which I think was really important for them to be involved with so that they had some buy-in as to who will be coaching them for the next four months. The Auckland Aces have a very good coaching system, and a testament to that is Doug's recent involvement with the Black Caps in the series against England. We look forward to him starting work with us in April," he added. (ANI)