Scotland appoint Doug Watson as interim men's head coach

Watson, who is currently head coach at Auckland Aces in New Zealand, will work with the national side between April 8-July 31

Scotland have appointed Doug Watson as interim head coach of the men's national side.

Watson, who is currently head coach at Auckland Aces in New Zealand, will link up with the squad on April 8 and is contracted until July 31.

He replaces Shane Burger, who has been appointed batting coach and assistant coach at Somerset.

Watson, who played domestic cricket in South Africa, was head coach of Namibia between 2012 and 2015 as well as enjoying coaching stints with Mumbai Indians, Wellington Firebirds, Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland and the New Zealand national team.

He was appointed head coach at Auckland in June 2022, signing a three-year contract, after previously working at the club as an assistant coach.

^{Watson replaces Shane Burger [Ian MacNicol/Getty Images]}

Watson will lead Scotland in the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualifying event in Zimbabwe in June as well as the 2024 T20 World Cup Europe qualifiers in Edinburgh in July.

"Firstly, I'm really thankful to everyone at Auckland Cricket for allowing me to pursue this opportunity with Cricket Scotland," said Watson.

"It's a wonderful chance for me to coach another country, and Scotland have been doing really well over the last four years.

"I'm looking forward to carrying on and develop the great work that Shane Burger has put in here. I know Shane well, he's worked really hard to help get Scotland to where they are, and it was great to see them lift the Cricket World Cup League 2 trophy last week in Nepal.

^{Under Burger, Scotland reached the Super 12s at the 2021 T20 World Cup [Alex Davidson/Getty Images]}

"I know it's obviously a short period of time that I'll be in charge, but there's two massive tournaments coming up which will be tough for us, especially the Cricket World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe in June. But it's also an exciting time as well – I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be fun."

Interim head of performance, Toby Bailey, added: "We conducted a very thorough hiring process and looked at around 45 candidates. We wanted someone who'd been previously involved with coaching smaller teams, with Associate cricket, with experience of World Cup qualifying competitions, with knowledge of top-level cricket, and with experience of Zimbabwe.

"Doug really fit the bill in all those cases. We had some of the men's players on the interview panel, which I think was really important for them to be involved with, so that they had some buy-in as to who will be coaching them for the next four months.

"Auckland Aces have a very good coaching system, and a testament to that is Doug's recent involvement with the Black Caps in the series against England."