While England have just started their white-ball home season with the ODI series against Australia, Scotland have just finished their entire home campaign. In the past seven days, they stunned England by six runs for their first-ever ODI win against Eoin Morgan’s side before succumbing to back-to-back T20 defeats against top-ranked Pakistan.
While Pakistan and England can look forward to regular fixtures until the end of the year, the same can’t be said about Scotland.
They, Netherlands, the UAE and Nepal were the four Associate nations to be awarded ODI status until 2022 and were later added to the ODI rankings earlier this month.
But unlike the Test sides, all four face an uncertain future of how many games they will play every year.
Here, we look at the four nations and their playing schedules until the end of 2018.
NETHERLANDS
Awarded ODI status after winning the World Cricket League Championship, the Dutch are currently involved in a T20 Tri-series with Ireland and Scotland. That event, which will be held every year, was only finalised in April, a few weeks after Netherlands’ last match at the World Cup Qualifier in March.
After beating Ireland in both T20 matches, they will play Scotland in back-to-back clashes on June 19 and 20.
The Dutch will then fly to England, to the Home of Cricket, for another tri-series against the MCC and Nepal at Lord’s. With all games on July 29, Netherlands will play Nepal and then face a MCC side later in the afternoon.
SCOTLAND
Following their matches against Pakistan and England, there’s been little rest for Grant Bradburn’s men as they travelled to Netherlands for the on-going T20 tri-series.
They face Ireland back-to-back on Saturday before repeating the same against hosts Netherlands on June 19 and 20. Once that match is finished, there are no fixtures lined up for the rest of the year.
NEPAL
By the time they take to the field at Lord’s on July 29, four months will have passed since their last match. That came, ironically, against against the Netherlands – who they will face in London. Once that is completed, their focus turns to the Asia Cup Qualifiers which is likely to be held in early September.
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Oman, Singapore and the UAE will be competing where one team will book their ticket to the Asia Cup showpiece at the end of September.
Nepal will then have a one-month break before they turn their attention to qualifying for the 2020 World Twenty20 in Australia. They are one of seven teams along with hosts Malaysia, Singapore, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Thailand set to compete in the Asian Eastern Regional Qualifiers. The top three will go through to the next stage of the qualifying process.
UAE
After a busy start to 2018, the UAE have had a deserved break and will report to training after the Eid holidays as they begin their preparations for the Asia Cup Qualifiers.
Although the tournament was switched from India to the UAE, Dougie Brown’s side will still have to earn the right to join the likes of India and Pakistan in the premier continental competition. They will fly to Malaysia early September for the qualifying tournament with the winners completing the Asia Cup line-up.
