Cricket World Cup 2015: Scotland reveal provisional 24-man squad

Matt Machan is included in Scotland' squad for next year's ICC Cricket World Cup

Scotland have announced their provisional 24-man squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup - which must be reduced to 15 players by 7 January.

Among the names to make the cut are Matt Machan of Sussex and Leicestershire's Robert Taylor.

Scotland will face New Zealand, England, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Australia in Pool A.

The tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March 2015.

The players who went on Scotland's recent warm-up tour to New Zealand and Australia have all been selected in the 24-man pool.

And added to that are Moneeb Iqbal, Gavin Main, George Munsey, David Murphy, Ruaidhri Smith, Andrew Umeed and Mark Watt.

Former England one-day captain Paul Collingwood, who will assist head coach Grant Bradburn, has already targeted two victories in the competition.

Scotland will be captained by Preston Mommsen, with Kyle Coetzer as vice-captain.

Assistant coach Craig Wright said: "The squad announcement brings our participation in the 2015 Cricket World Cup another step closer.

"We've had some quality preparation already with really productive trips away to New Zealand, Australia and Dubai. I'm sure the players are itching to get selected for the final squad, allowing them to display their skills on the world stage."

And he told BBC Scotland that the games against such notable opposition were a chance "to put Scottish cricket on the map".

"Scotland hasn't won a game in a World Cup before so that's something we're targeting," said Wright.

"The team have set out the goal over the next few years to become the best-ever Scottish team so putting in some good performances and getting a couple of wins would set us on the way to achieving that goal."

Scotland will train and play some training matches in Dubai over three weeks in January and the national side will face Ireland and the West Indies on 10 and 12 February in Sydney in warm-up matches for the World Cup.

Mommsen added: "It's a real honour to lead this group of players into a global event of this magnitude.

"We are a tight-knit unit and have grown together over the past few years.

"We're all very focused on the task ahead and strongly feel that this is our opportunity to create history."

And specialist coach Collingwood said: "I'm really excited to be involved with Cricket Scotland again in this superb journey to the World Cup.

"I'm looking forward to working with the boys in the most exciting cricket tournament they could play in."