Local cricketer Chris McBride helped Scotland pick up a trophy last week after the side completed their ICC World Cup League 2 campaign with four matches in Nepal to win the league title.
McBride, who learnt his cricket as a junior at Dumfries Cricket Club, made his contributions as top scorer, with 47, in a win over Namibia and managed scores of 22, twice, in two close defeats to Nepal. In the other win against Namibia he remained as next man in as Scotland won convincingly by 10 wickets.
After the Namibia win Scotland coach Shane Burger commented “From a batting point of view, it was good to see Chris McBride get off to a good start and post a good score [47]. He is playing well at the moment and getting starts, so going forward I’m sure he can go on and get some big scores.”
The successful performances in the league mean that Scotland have successfully qualified and can now prepare for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket 50 Over World Cup Qualifier which begins in June in Zimbabwe including against two of Sri Lanka, West Indies or South Africa.
After his debut last April, 23 year old McBride has now passed a milestone of ten Scotland caps in a squad which is in transition to a younger cohort of players.
As for the experience of playing in Nepal in front of the passionate sell-out crowds of over 15,000 in Kathmandu, plus several thousand watching the game from outside the ground, Chris commented “It was a great experience to play in different conditions which brought different challenges, the Nepalese fans were amazing and made it a spectacle. Disappointing to only win two out of four games but it was an amazing tour nonetheless.
Personally it was good to get three starts and a highest score but frustrated about not getting the big scores. It will be an exciting summer with two World Cup qualifiers and hopefully I can try and play a big part of both within the squad.”
Anyone, from juniors to seniors, who are interested in playing some cricket this coming season can get in touch with the Dumfries club at Nunholm on [email protected] .
