Coronavirus-afflicted 2020 a 'huge blow' for Cricket Scotland, says CEO
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The postponement of this year's T20 World Cup and matches with Australia and New Zealand have cost Scottish Cricket around £500,000
A coronavirus-afflicted 2020 has been a "huge blow" for Cricket Scotland, says chief executive Gus Mackay.
The postponement of this year's T20 World Cup and glamour home matches with Australia and New Zealand have cost the organisation around £500,000 in revenue.
And Mackay says the "worst case scenario" both on and off the pitch would be no matches before 2021.
"To be honest the whole year has been a big blow for us," he said.
"We have had to look at a reset plan for the business to make sure we can reset and go again.
"I think we will come through this, we will come through this a lot stronger [but] it is just unfortunate that we are not playing cricket and that is what we are about.
"But we are remaining positive that we can at least try and get something in somewhere, even if that means playing some games at a neutral venue."
The men's national side resumed training in Edinburgh this week, but but with no fixtures in the calendar they do not know when they will return to match action.
Scotland are currently Associate Members of the International Cricket Council, and their long-term goal is to achieve full-member status.
Mackay admits a lack of opportunity to play against top teams due to Covid-19 has hindered their progress.
"It has to a certain extent," he told BBC Scotland. "Part of the criteria was continuing to perform well and beat full member nations.
"We have done that in the past couple of years and we were hoping that we could probably pull off a couple of wins this summer leading in to the World Cup.
"So it has set us back a little bit but I am confident that we can get back on that pathway and continue to push forwards to become a full member of the ICC."
Meanwhile, the launch of the European T20 Slam tournament has been delayed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Originally set to launch in 2019, the league will be two teams each from Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands compete against one another.