Scottish captain George Salmond on his team's World Cup chances
Tony Munro - 20 March 1999

The World Cup is just over seven weeks away and the author thought it might be relevant to capture the thoughts of George Salmond, who will lead Scotland in its debut at the game's showpiece event. He was asked a couple of cliché questions:

1. Apart from beating Bangladesh, what are the team's goals? "Apart from that, we are hoping to compete for long periods in all other games. We are realistic about our prospects of winning matches against Test-playing nations, but will assess each wicket we play on, suggest what is a realistic total to achieve if batting first and try hard to take regular wickets to to put some pressure on the opposition. We want to be seen to enjoy ourselves. Not only are we representing Scotland, but also all of the other ICC Associate member countries.

2. What are your team's strengths? " We have a strong seam bowling department, probably our strongest for some years. Gavin Hamilton will spearhead this with John Blain, another playing in the English County scene, James Brinkley (formerly with Worcestershire) and Asim Butt, a left-arm seamer. "Our batting sees an experienced pair opening in Bruce Patterson and Ian Philip, who is the leading Scottish run-scorer of all-time. Mike Smith, our most naturally gifted and stylish batsman at 3 and me at 4, hoping to work it around and put some pressure on the fielders"

3. How do you feel about being the captain of the first Scottish team to play in a World Cup? "Extremely honoured to be leading Scotland in their first World Cup campaign and hope we do ourselves proud. I would be lying if I wasn't apprehensive but as it is such a high profile event, no doubt everyone else involved will feel the same."