Doug Watson named Scotland’s interim head coach

Watson, 49, loved an in depth home profession in South Africa and has beforehand held teaching roles with Mumbai Indians, Wellington, Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland and Namibia. He has been Auckland’s coach since June 2022 and stepped in as New Zealand’s batting coach throughout their latest drawn Test collection in opposition to England.

Watson’s contract will run from April 8-July 31. The international qualifier for the 2023 ODI World Cup will probably be held in Zimbabwe in June-July, whereas the European qualifier for the 2024 T20 World Cup takes place in Edinburgh in late July.

“I’m really thankful to everyone at Auckland Cricket for allowing me to pursue this opportunity with Cricket Scotland,” Watson stated. “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 do know it is clearly a brief time frame that I’ll be in cost, however there’s two large tournaments developing which will probably be robust for us, particularly the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June. But it is also an thrilling time as nicely – I’m wanting ahead to it and it is going to be enjoyable.”

“We carried out a really thorough hiring course of and checked out round forty-five candidates,” Toby Bailey, Cricket Scotland’s interim head of performance, said. “We needed somebody who’d been beforehand concerned with teaching smaller groups, with affiliate cricket, with expertise of World Cup Qualifying competitions, with information of top-level cricket, and with expertise 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.”