Scotland has secured a wonderful opportunity to play a full-member nation before heading to England for the Champions Trophy. As a preparation for the prestigious tournament, Scotland will face Sri Lanka in two unofficial 50-over games, Cricket Scotland announced on Thursday (February 16). The matches have been scheduled on May 21 and May 23 at the County Ground in Beckenham.

Grant Bradburn, the head coach of Scotland, was understandably pleased with the prospect of playing a top international side, given that such chances have been scarce.

“To secure two opportunities to play Sri Lanka is so valuable for our Scotland team,” he said.

“Our national team is desperate to play as much quality of cricket as possible to keep advancing and the growing skills and depth across our whole Scotland performance squads.

“Despite these games not being official One-Day Internationals, we will treat them as if they are. Any chance to play a Full Member team is brilliant for our development and we look forward to fielding a side that resembles our strongest possible line-up.”

The two teams have met two times so far with Sri Lanka winning both encounters by handsome margins. The first time the two sides faced each other in Edinburgh in 2011, they registered a comprehensive 183-run win over the Scots.

The second time both teams met was during the 2015 World CUp and the result was pretty much similar as Sri Lanka yet again dominated the associate nation without much trouble, thrashing them by a 148-run margin.

The news is another positive step towards helping associate nations achieve more progress and become competition worthy. Traditionally, the associates have struggled to get such opportunities and often end up playing against other associate nations, which results in no addition of any value to their development.