WEST of Scotland have completed the signing of former Saltires bowler John Blain, writes William Dick.
Blain, one of a plethora of staff to be released by Yorkshire four months ago, will join the Hamilton Crescent club as player-coach. Gordon Smith, the West president, believes Blain will prove a great addition to his side.
"The club took a decision not to go down the route of bringing in an overseas hired assassin," he said. "Our emphasis is on developing from within and John Blain's coaching pedigree is first class.I'm confident he will be a great asset on and off the field."
Blain, who turned down several offers from England, is looking forward to challenging himself as a coach. "I'm grateful to West for giving me the opportunity to continue developing as a coach," he said.
Blain helped to develop England youngsters like Jonathan Bairstow and Joe Root during his time with Yorkshire but was deemed surplus to requirements when the club opted to restructure its coaching set-up following relegation to the County Championship.
Blain came through the ranks at his hometown club Penicuik, before moving to Scottish National League side Heriot's. He became Scotland's youngest internationalist in more than a century when he was given his debut at the age of 17 before playing in the 1999 World Cup where he had the best strike-rate of any bowler in the tournament. He later spent seven seasons at Northamptonshire.
His 117-cap Scotland career came to a premature end following a public bust-up with his friend and former national captain Gavin Hamilton on the eve of the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup. As well as being a promising coach, he remains a skilful seam bowler.
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