SCOTLAND'S cricketers did all they could to shut the stable door, but some of the horses had already bolted. Victory over the United Arab Emirates saved the team's hard-earned one-day international status and thus avoided financial oblivion, but World Cup qualification was lost.
The win lifted Scotland out of the relegation zone and into fifth place in the Super Eights at the ICC 2011 World Cup Qualifier, but as the leaders, Ireland and Canada, ran out of gas, Kenya and Netherlands won to skate clear of the chasing pack.
In spite of that, disaster was averted. Another defeat would have seen Scotland stripped of ODI status until 2013. Money-spinning visits by England, Australia, India and Pakistan would have become the stuff of history lessons.
In Gauteng this month Scotland have beaten Namibia, Uganda, Oman, the Netherlands and the UAE, lost heavily to Ireland and Canada and failed also to beat Kenya and Afghanistan. Had any of those days gone better the squad would have been buoyant in the hotel bar last night.
Instead, they were staring down the barrel of failure and several (Gavin Hamilton, Craig Wright, Colin Smith and surely Ryan Watson) contemplating the reality that they will never play in another World Cup. The implications of this botched crusade, as Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith confirmed, will sting the players more than it will the game as a whole.
"Financially, the only thing we have lost is the $150,000 of extra ICC funding that the top four will get each year to prepare for the next World Cup," said Smith, whose body will receive an annual $850,000 (£574,000) from the ICC over the next four years, more than double the level of support received between 2005 and 2009.
The timing of that cash injection is handy: Lloyds TSB Scotland is withdrawing its support of the game in December after seven years as flagship sponsor.
With no particular financial crisis looming, none of the existing nuts and bolts of the game need to be removed. The group of three who turned professional just three months ago won't be getting company any time soon. But will Watson, Gordon Goudie and Dewald Nel still be full-time next year?
"I think we have to hang fire on that," said Smith. "We have to sit down and discuss that in the next few weeks. It (missing out on the 2011 World Cup] will certainly have an impact. The extra $150,000 would have been ring-fenced for expanding the full-time programme, and we won't have that now."
As they go into a notional play-off with Afghanistan, whose capture of ODI status for the next four years is a far more exciting development, some of the Scots will mull over their future in the sport and a disconsolate Watson will wonder if he should carry on as captain.
Smith, who speedily appointed him two years ago after Wright stood down, didn't want to join Paul Hoffmann in delivering his verdict. The former fast bowler recommended yesterday that Watson step down for the good of his game, but the chief executive said: "The selectors and Ryan will need to answer that, because we have a game at Lord's a week on Sunday."
This past fortnight, as one gut-wrenching loss gave way to another, the 32-year-old wasn't only burdened with keeping dreams intact, he was also batting for the well-being of a young family. The adopted Dundonian gave up a solid career in sales with the Caledonian Brewery to throw in his lot with cricket, and yesterday he came within 121 runs of seeing it all disappear.
You didn't have to be in South Africa to conclude that he cannot do justice to his batting talent under pressure of this magnitude. He made a top score of 14 in nine innings, his confidence so shot that he sent in Neil McCallum ahead of him yesterday in the interest of momentum.
And while McCallum (416 runs including three hundreds), Wright (16 wickets at an average of 13.62), John Blain, Gavin Hamilton, Jan Stander and Kyle Coetzer emerge from the tournament with credit, the collective group will have to wait four years to make amends.
Smith concluded: "The table doesn't lie and we didn't deserve to finish any higher than fifth. There are no excuses – quite simply, the team's performances have not been good enough.
"Not reaching the next World Cup is a major disappointment and we will all have to lick our wounds and move on from that. But we are involved in the World Twenty20 in June, we will be in the qualifiers for the next one, and we will continue to play in the Intercontinental Cup as well as our usual county programme."
SCOREBOARD
SCOTLANDG Hamilton b Qasim Zubair 127
N Poonia ret hurt 5
K Coetzer run out 35
N McCallum c N Aslam b Amjad Javed 54
R Watson c F Ahmed b Qasim Zubair 3
C Smith c Naeem Aslam b Amjad Javed 9
J Stander c Nithin Gopal b Qasim Zubair 3
C Wright c Khurram Khan b F Ahmed 25
J Blain not out 6
Extras (b1 lb5 w25) 31
Total (for seven) 299
Fall: 1-96 2-217 3-237 4-263 5-265 6-273 7-299
Bowling: Javed 9-0-51-2, Zubair 10-1-62-3, Gopal 6-0-35-0, Shah 3-0-13-0, Ahmed 8-0-44-1, Arshad 1-0-7-0, Saqib 9-0-49-0, Khan 3-0-19-0, Hameed 1-0-13-0.
UAEAmjad Javed c Smith b Blain 5
Arshad Ali c Hamilton b Wright 17
Nithin Gopal run out 50
Saqib Ali c MacLeod b Wright 17
Sameer Nayak c Blain b Wright 21
Khurram Khan c Coetzer b Wright 9
Naeem Aslam b Nel 16
Fayyaz Ahmed run out 19
Zahid Shah b Watson 6
Qasim Zubair c Hamilton b MacLeod 5
Owais Hameed not out 1
Extras (lb7 w4) 11
Total (39.4 overs) 177
Fall: 1-6 2-35 3-63 4-101 5-125 6-127 7-158 8-171 9-171 10-177
Bowling: Blain 10-2-33-1, Nel 8-1-34-1, Wright 10-2-41-4, Stander 5-0-30-0, MacLeod 3.4-0-18-1, Watson 3-0-15-1.
Hamilton hurt badly by 2011 eliminationGAVIN Hamilton has revealed the depth of his hurt at missing out on one final fling at the World Cup after helping Scotland claim the consolation prize of securing their one-day international status yesterday.
Hamilton scored 127 off 124 balls to set up a 122-run victory over the United Arab Emirates in the Saltires' final Super Eight match at the qualifying tournament in South Africa.
But Scotland's desperate bid to snatch the fourth and final 2011 World Cup spot on offer ended in failure after both the Netherlands and Kenya avoided defeat.
Scotland, who posted 299 for seven in their innings at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, finished fifth in the table with three wins and four losses.
And although sixth place would have been enough to secure their ODI status, the tournament can only be considered a failure for a side who won the same event four years ago.
Yesterday's century was bittersweet for 34-year-old Hamilton, who played at both the 1999 and 2007 World Cups. The 2011 tournament was almost certainly going to be his swansong.
"Personally, it was more than likely going to be my last one," said the former Yorkshire all-rounder, who also made one Test appearance for England in 1999.
"It's not really sunk in, to be honest. I've not really had time to reflect on the whole thing.
"This week has been a high-pressure week financially for Cricket Scotland. It will sink in, I'm sure it will."
Hamilton was alluding to the millions of pounds the Scottish game's governing body stood to lose if the team failed to hold on to their ODI status, which would have happened had they lost yesterday's game.
But he admitted: "Myself and the team are bitterly disappointed at not qualifying."
Ben Rumsby 