On the eve of the last ICC World Cup to feature four Associate teams, the timing could hardly be better to launch a book about cricket's Second XI, the countries destined to be forever on the outside with little prospect of joining the ICC's elite.

Obviously some have a more realistic chance than others - Ireland and Afghanistan, for example, have been taken out of the World Cricket League and given the chance to play one-day internationals on a level footing with the 10 Full Members.

Others, such as China and the United States would be welcomed on board by ICC if their playing ability matched their world power and finance, but in between there are six other countries who have experienced the ups and mainly downs in their bid to reach the top of the Second XI. The stories are fascinating and revealing.

Tim Wigmore and Peter Millar are the co-authors and have written profiles of seven of the Associate countries, enlisting the help of Tim Brooks (Nepal), Sahil Dutta (China) and Gideon Haigh (Papua New Guinea) who also writes an informed Foreword.

The 224-page paperback is divided into four sections - the World Cup Standard Bearers (Afghanistan, Ireland, UAE and Scotland) The Forgotten Associates (Netherlands and Kenya) Local Dreams (PNG and Nepal) and Cricket's Golden Ticket (China and USA).

It is a warts and all story with John Mooney's infamous Margaret Thatcher tweet getting another airing in the Ireland chapter - the longest in the book - along with Adi Birrell's first day as coach when he “was handed the keys to a car and told that the boot doubled as the storeroom for Ireland's kit”.

Tim Gruijters' controversial exit from the Netherlands squad at the World Twenty20, to make room for the late-call up of Tom Cooper, is extensively covered while we are told that Scotland's early experience in the Benson and Hedges Cup “enjoyed scant success (and) players used to fight over the free packets of cigarettes that were handed out”.

But there is plenty of space to tell of the successes the countries have enjoyed with Ireland's victory over Pakistan in Jamaica in 2007 starting their chapter - where else? - with skipper Trent Johnston's quotes from the day while the tie with Zimbabwe, two days earlier, and Bangalore 2011 are both recaptured vividly. Going into their third ICC World Cup finals they remain Ireland's seminal moments.

Ireland's low point in recent years - their 2014 World Twenty20 defeat to the Netherlands is featured extensively in the Dutch chapter, of course, but what is more interesting is the squad's underwhelming feeling after the ‘consolation' victory over England. Captain Peter Borren still looks back on what might have been and remains more disappointed with the way they lost the games against New Zealand and South Africa, the latter which he describes as his “most disappointing day in a Dutch shirt”.

Scotland's high remains their 2005 ICC Trophy final victory over Ireland and Wigmore's analysis of why they have gone in the opposite direction to Ireland in the last 10 years is insightful, with lack of ambition a recurring them.

It came to a climax on the same September day in 2013 when “Ireland recognised their game (against England) as a chance to show off Irish cricket to the world. The Village in Malahide was turned into a ground capable of seating 10,000 spectators … 8,500 tickets had to be sold just to break even. It represented a monumental gamble,” writes Wigmore.

He continues: “In comparison, Scotland risked nothing on the game against Australia and gained even less: 3,000 spectators came to see the side get mauled and little was done to present Scotland as desperate for more international fixtures.”
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t least the chapter ends on a positive note with issues being addressed, the onset of professionalism, the building of a new home of cricket in Stirling and World Cup qualification “combining to reinvigorate Scottish cricket” and a new “poster boy” in Calum MacLeod who, with impeccable timing, on the day the book was launched scored 129 not out in a World Cup warm-up game.

The authors spoke to more than 120 people - the vast majority quoted - in compiling this very readable book, “put together on a shoestring by true cricket lovers” as Haigh says in the foreword.

From the Taliban shooting into the air to celebrate Afghanistan's World Cup qualification, to the UAE, where 90 per cent of the population are not UAE nationals, to the bleak future for Kenya, as opposed to the rise of thriving Nepal, to the passion of new kids on the block Papua New Guinea, to the fantasy of China and the administrative bedlam that is the USA, it is all covered.

CricketEurope's Barry Chambers' photographs - by no means exclusively of Ireland - make up a significant portion of the colour section - and add to what is sure to be a definitive work on Cricket's Second XI.

Second XI - Cricket in its Outposts by Tim Wigmore and Peter Miller (Pitch Publishing, £12.99).