Stability the key as Scotland eye more opportunity at international level

Despite narrowly missing out on qualification for this year’s ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, it’s been a prosperous time for Scotland’s women, competing at a maiden ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and claiming awards on and off the field in a nod to their hard work.

Much of that recent hard work has been due to the ongoing output of new CEO Trudy Lindblade, who has held her position at the top of Cricket Scotland for more than 12 months now and continues to press on with many of the amazing initiatives that were put into place well before she commenced her role.

WATCH: Scotland's steady rise in the women's game

Lindblade has been around cricket for much of her adult life, having previously worked at Cricket Australia as an event manager earlier this century, before playing a major role in the successful running of the 2007 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean and the first ICC Men's T20 World Cup in South Africa later that same year.

It's those years that helped Lindblade earn the top job with Scotland and the experienced administrator has wasted no time in bringing her wealth of knowledge to the burgeoning European organization, which has built the base for ongoing success both on and off the field at the highest level.

One of Lindblade's first - and most important - tasks was to implement a new four-year strategic plan for Cricket Scotland that will attempt to grow the girls and women’s game, develop community cricket, create a culture of equality and provide more support at elite performance level.

Lindblade helped launch this strategic plan in August last year and delved into the challenges she experienced while working on the huge task when speaking with ICC Digital from her Edinburgh base recently.

Despite of missing out on a spot at the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025, Scotland forged some impressive displays at the Qualifier in Pakistan.

"Coming in and working for a governing body really shows you both the highs and sometimes the lows that you can experience in sport," Lindblade said.

"The key for me was to make sure that we delivered our strategy. So we released our strategy in August last year and we are now focused on delivering the action plans that are coming out and delivering against those. It's a four-year strategy (and) it's been really rewarding because on the field we've had unprecedented success for an Associate member.”

Lindblade paid tribute to the colleagues that helped her deliver the ambitious strategy and said the task was made much easier with everyone working together and on the same path.

"People are the most important asset that you have in an organisation. And we are so fortunate, at Cricket Scotland, to have some of the most terrific people because they are very passionate about what they do," she noted.

"If you've got passionate people who love what they do, who see the strategy, and see what we are trying to achieve at the collective, then you will get those outcomes that you are seeking.

"But you also need some pragmatism in Associate member cricket, because we can't do everything we'd like to.

"One of our biggest and best value assets is the ability to say no so that we can focus on those things that are going to achieve that success for us to either drive performance, drive revenue and drive success."

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The recent success was not borne from nothing, with Cricket Scotland enjoying their fruits after years of toil to develop the women’s game

The organisation have shown great flexibility too - with one project - the Wee Bash - created when looking up at the rain belting down on Stirling, curtailing an ICC Qualifier.

Rather than sit around and twiddling their thumbs, an indoor tournament was quickly derived and is now played by hundreds of people with a soft ball for all levels of cricketers across the country.

Cricket Scotland’s ongoing partnership with the Beyond Boundaries charity was also recognised at the ICC Development Awards last year, with the link-up, which started in 2017, boosting opportunities for female and disabled cricketers across the country as well as taking free sessions into disadvantaged areas.

"Climate here in Scotland is one that we do sometimes have to be creative where rain is often a feature," Lindblade commenced when asked about the success of the Wee Bash.

"But the ability to have indoor facilities and to be able to do, to be able to run different programs, and programs like Wee Bash we're really proud of, and it really does demonstrate that partnership approach with the charity like Beyond Boundaries, the commitment of that trust and of their leadership, is second to none.

"And they regularly send us ideas, and how we can engage and how we can continue to grow the game in Scotland, and they are a home-grown Scottish cricket charity. And, that's something that we should celebrate. So we love working with all our partners. But to have a charity like Beyond Boundaries, which is truly Scottish is a terrific opportunity for us.

"And they can help us grow the game. In those key groups."

On the field, things have progressed at a rate of knots of late too as Scotland successfully qualified for their first Women's T20 World Cup in 2024 after a memorable victory over rival Ireland in an exciting semi-final of the Qualifier tournament in Abu Dhabi.

While the team were unable to replicate that effort when they narrowly missed out on qualifying for this year's 50-over World Cup at the recent Qualifier tournament in Pakistan, they will be buoyed by the fact that two of their players won a spot in the ICC Team of the Tournament and skipper Kathryn Bryce was named Player of the Tournament after she finished as the leading run-scorer across the event.

Bryce, who debuted for Scotland in 2011 as a 13-year-old in a Women's County Championship and has played a major role in the recent on field success, identified the recent stability off the field which has helped swell player participation at all levels.

"I think one of the biggest changes I've seen since I started playing cricket was just the number of girls that are involved in the game in Scotland," Bryce noted.

"So a lot of the junior festivals I went to, there was only, maybe four or five teams there, whereas when I went down more recently, there's kind of massive fields filled with, with up to almost 100 different teams and loads of different players, from across the country playing and getting involved with the sport."

Scotland skipper Kathryn Bryce finished atop the run-scoring charts at the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 Qualifier in Pakistan.

With Bryce nailed down as captain and one of the most consistent players in international cricket, Scotland have also received a recent boost with the long-term commitment of young coach Craig Wallace.

Wallace, who took the full-time role as coach in August last year after leading the side to the T20 World Cup for the first time as interim coach, sees much potential with his side.

"I think the standard of the women's game is just improving all the time,” Wallace said.

“We need to keep up with the full members in particular, and try to play a game that can challenge them and beat them.”

If Scotland continue on their remarkable path, the higher honours and big wins will likely come in time.