Lottery cash helps Scots prepare for success
Thursday 27 April 2000
Scotland's cricketers have received the backing of sportscotland Lottery Fund to help them in their preparations for the European Championships in Glasgow in July.
Eighteen of Scotland's top cricket players will receive £54,000 from sportscotland Lottery Fund's Talented Athlete Programme towards sports costs such as competition, training and coaching, sports medicine and sports science and equipment.
The money will mainly be directed towards preparation for competing in key competitions this year including the European Championships where Scotland will face nations such as Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Italy and England. The following month, the national squad will compete against the West Indies at Clydesdale Cricket Club in Pollockshields in Glasgow, which earlier received Lottery funding to upgrade its clubhouse and cricket square.
It is hoped that the cricketers' sports programme will strengthen the squad for the forthcoming KC Association Members' Trophy in Toronto in 2001, enabling them to go on to compete in the next Cricket World Cup to be held in 2003 in South Africa.
Jim Love, Director of coaching at the Scottish Cricket Union, said: "Scottish cricket has improved steadily in recent years and last year, when Scotland competed in the Cricket World Cup for the first time, individual performances were encouraging.
"The squad we are working with at the moment is relatively young, however, with the increased opportunities available for training and competition and with the recent appointment of a national coach, I am confident that the squad will continue to strengthen.
"Lottery money has played a significant part in transforming Scottish Cricket in the past few years."
Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, said: "With the introduction of Lottery funding, more opportunities have been opened up for the development of top athletes in Scotland.
"The recent Lottery-funded appointment of Mike Hendrick as Scottish Cricket's new national coach and the individual funding of both junior and senior cricketers, will help to put in place a more structured programme of development, helping to improve enormously the standard of the game in Scotland.
"In addition to supporting top level sport, Lottery money has been directed to all aspects of Scottish sport. Through its Lottery Fund, sportscotland has invested over £100 million in school and youth sport, coaching, major events and sports facilities and equipment."
The total amount awarded this month through the Talented Athlete Programme is £94,341, benefiting sports including athletics, bowling, cricket, orienteering, volleyball and water skiing. Around 500 athletes in 40 different sports are supported each year