The experienced Northamptonshire batsman Kyle Coetzer, Calum MacLeod of Durham, Leicestershire’s Rob Taylor, Matt Machan of Sussex, Somerset’s Josh Davey and Michael Leask, who attracted interest from Northants after belting 42 off 16 balls against England in a day away from his job at the Clydesdale Bank last May, have all been included in the squad that will be coached by Grant Bradburn, a New Zealander, with assistance from Paul Collingwood.
“The county experience is important to us,” confirmed Coetzer, the 30-year-old from Aberdeen who made his first-class debut for Durham more than a decade ago, and is happy to play under the captaincy of Preston Mommsen in the tournament after being relieved of the role this autumn.
“Guys like Rob Taylor and Matt Machan have been playing full-time for a number of years now. That’s not to say they’ve played a huge amount of first team cricket but it does give them an air of confidence, a day in day out attitude, and that really helps the rest of the guys in the squad. They help lead the way.”
Scotland recently returned from a three-week trip to New Zealand and Tasmania, assessing the conditions in which they will play each of their six group games – opening up against the Black Caps in Dunedin, before facing England in Christchurch, Afghanistan also in Dunedin, Bangladesh in Nelson and then crossing the Tasman to take on Sri Lanka and Australia in Hobart.
“We’re over the moon with the group we’re in,” said Coetzer, who made a welcome return to form on tour after a lean county season at Northants. “As well as England, we play the two host nations, which should make for big crowds and a great atmosphere. We’ve got our goals of trying to take down at least one of the Test playing nations, because that’s something we haven’t ever done as an associate. But obviously England is a bit special.”
Few players at the World Cup will have travelled as many miles as Coetzer, at least in the early stages of their career. He grew up in Aberdeen, where his father Peter had relocated from South Africa to work in the oil industry, which made Durham his nearest first-class county – a round trip of 500 miles, to misquote The Proclaimers, after Mike Hendrick had contacted his former England team-mate Geoff Cook to offer a recommendation.
“There used to be a few decent treks up and down, a few winter practice sessions,” he recalls. “It started when I was 14, and went on until I finished school and went to join the academy down there.”
After seven seasons on the senior staff at Durham, Coetzer moved even further south to Northampton, where he was a member of the squad who were crowned Twenty20 champions in 2013. But Durham will still be represented in the Scotland squad by MacLeod, the 26-year-old Glaswegian whose explosive hitting played such a crucial part in securing World Cup qualification.
“The first time I came across Calum was when he came down on work experience to Durham when he was at school,” Coetzer said. “Then I played against him in a second team game when he was at Warwickshire – he’d been signed as a bowler, he used to bat at 9, 10 or 11. So for him to go from there to opening the batting for Scotland, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone improve like that in my whole career. I’m hugely excited and proud of him really, especially as he’s playing at Durham, the club where I started and still have a lot of friends.”
Those friends include Collingwood, who he describes as “exceptional at making guys feel good about themselves, building confidence. Coming out of the nets even if you’ve played and missed at everything he’ll say ‘Jeez you’ve looked good’. And obviously he just brings that little bit of experience and expertise, as a guy who’s captained England and won a T20 World Cup.”
Coetzer is especially proud of the Aberdonian influence on the squad, which extends to Leask and seamer Gordon Goudie – all three of them from the Stoneywood-Dyce club in which Coetzer’s father previously played a prominent role – and also Davey, the 24-year-old all-rounder who joined Somerset from Middlesex in 2014.
“Josh was born in Aberdeen, but he’s lived down in England since he was really small I think,” Coetzer added – Davey went to school in Suffolk. “But we’ve always had a bit of a link, simply because he was born in Aberdeen. There were four of us playing in that game against England in May – me, Josh, Michael Leask and Gordon Goudie.”
The Coetzer family will be back in Aberdeen for Christmas before the World Cup preparations start in earnest – and Kyle is already looking forward to a couple more reunions in New Zealand in the New Year.
“The current plan is that mum and dad will come over to New Zealand to watch us,” he explained. “The last time they did that was when me and my brother Stuart were playing there in the under-19 World Cup. Dad’s working out in Alaska at the moment – people who have seen that Ice Road Truckers show on Discovery will know the sort of thing. It’s been more than 30 years now since he was on the rigs – he started as a roughneck and worked his way up.”
Finally, there is the prospect of playing against Ben Stokes, whose development he witnessed first-hand at Durham, in that Scotland-England clash. “It’s nice playing against England, because having been fortunate enough to be on the county scene for a while I’ll know most of their guys,” Coetzer said. “ But playing against Ben would be something else. I remember seeing him as a young boy and standing in the back of the nets thinking ‘I could be in a bit of trouble here’. But I was determined not to be defensive and bitter, I was just excited because the guy was an immensely talented player. I’m sure he won’t be short of a word or two if he’s bowling at me either.”