CHENNAI: The moment Kathryn Bryce smashed the four off Ireland's Eimear Richardson at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on May 5, Scotland women created history.
For the first time in their existence, after years and years of so near yet so far moments in the World Cup Qualifiers, Scotland had qualified for the women's T20 World Cup. The tear-filled celebrations went on and for Sue Strachan, the former president of Cricket Scotland, it was a moment of jubilation and reflection. "I was just contemplating the journey. It has been a very emotional day," Strachan told this daily.
"Relief was the dominant emotion (when Kathryn hit the winning runs.) It made me think of all the people who have come before us. All the people who have put work into Scottish women's cricket, who've played for Scotland before and all those people have just failed to qualify and never had the opportunity to play in the World Cup before. I'm so delighted for this group of players, this squad, and their coaches that they will get to show the world what we can do."
The draw was not easy for Scotland as they started their tournament with a whopping 109-run win against Uganda, but had no answers against Chamari Athapaththu-led Sri Lanka as they lost by 10 wickets. However, Kathryn Bryce led the team in all departments to take her side to the semi-final, where Ireland, the other ICC full-member nation, was waiting for them. Kathryn again came through to take four crucial wickets in the semifinal and followed it with an unbeaten 35 runs alongside her sister and wicketkeeper Sarah to finally cross the line.
"Kathryn is one of those big game players. When an important team comes around, she relishes the challenge. She's very level-headed as we've seen in the WPL but we've seen her playing in any team she plays in, but she was relishing the challenge of making her mark on the game and being able to set the results. But she has been superb with both bat and ball this tournament. She has got four out of five player match awards and has deserved each. And at the same time, she has led her team qualifications for the first time," the proud former president added.
It was not just Kathryn. Megan McColl, the 23-year-old batter, who did not even feature in a few early matches of the qualifier understood the need for the occasion in the semi-final to hit her maiden half-century. Strachan could not have been more proud of the young player. "Megan has worked hard on her cricket over the winter and often in challenging circumstances, having to train in Scotland in the winter indoors. And the coaches said to her, you are ready, Megan and she just took her opportunity to make her maiden 50 such an important game. It was just incredible," said Strachan.
Speaking about the coaching staff, Strachan praised the coaching trio, who helped Scotland achieve this success. "Our head coach is Craig Wallace who has represented Scotland himself as a cricketer. and he has an incredible amount of experience himself. I think he's brought these plays together with a sense of enjoyment of cricket as well as learning as they go along. And the assistant coaches are Joe Kinghorn-Gray, who is based in Edinburgh, and Leigh Kasparek, who have brought different skills to the table. It has allowed our players to find their best game as and when they need it."
When not playing for Scotland, most of the national players have contracts in the England domestic system as they play in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup. It does help in gaining experience and getting the opportunity to play in one of the professional leagues in women's cricket, but at the same time, it means the Scotland squad is scattered in various camps over the year. This time around the situation was a little bit different.
"We knew that if each one of us put in the performance that we know we can, we would get over the line. There's a massive trust and camaraderie and a shared passion. We're a small country but we're all very passionately Scottish. This time we had some opportunity to be together before the tournament and that made a massive difference because we were scattered all over the place. But, the girls are gaining experiences that they couldn't at this time in Scotland. And so they bring those experiences back to the group and they share the benefits of those with the group and the group grows together," Strachan explained.
At the end of the day, from the bigger perspective, an associate nation making it to the World Cup is a huge deal. Not just for Scotland, but for other associate nations as well. In Rugby-mad Scotland, this achievement could change the way women's cricket is viewed. "I think, you can't underestimate how massive it is for Scottish women's cricket to do this because in Scotland, people who don't follow cricket would perhaps not understand the qualification process. And the cricket World Cup is such a small World Cup with only 10 teams.
"It is hard to break into that with the funding an associate nation has. To get there allows us to show how far we've come and to show the rest of Scotland and the rest of the world how hard these players and coaches have worked. Also what a great opportunity it is for the ones coming after them to see that you can actually be on the world stage. And for all the other associate nations, it gives them hope that they might be in that position one day too," Strachan underlined the impact of this qualification.
After confirming their ticket to Bangladesh for the World Cup in Bangladesh, Scotland will face Sri Lanka in the final of the World Cup qualifier today. The result of the final will determine if Scotland will be in Group A or B at the marquee tournament.
However, Strachan is not overtly worried about the result of the final. "I think for us, that whichever group we're put in, we will do our best to show all of those teams in that group how good we are. We relish the challenge and this is an opportunity, that Scotland women's cricket has never had before and we are looking forward to it. Whichever teams we play, we will aim to gain such amazing experiences and learning. I think that our team is only going to get better," she signed off.