The Scottish Saltires yesterday made the surprise decision to appoint Fraser Watts captain for next week's Friends Provident Trophy matches against Derbyshire and Lancashire.

Watts, who has been a fixture in the side since the Scots started competing regularly against the English counties in the National Cricket League, has regularly flattered to deceive at the highest level, and has amassed only 103 runs in his last eight FPT matches.

It hardly suggests saddling him with the added burden of captaincy, in the absence of Ryan Watson - who is unavailable for both games, as he awaits the birth of his first child - is a good idea. More strangely still, when Watson was out of the subsequently-abandoned pre-season warm-up fixture against Durham, the Saltires management handed the leadership duties to John Blain.

Despite being thrashed by Lancashire in their opening match of the campaign, there is little sign of consistency in the 13-man squad, with no place for Qasim Sheikh, one of the few batsmen to enhance his reputation on the recent trip to Namibia, while Colin Smith has been retained as wicketkeeper, despite an alarming run drought in recent games.

The party also includes War-wickshire's Navdeep Poonia, who has been "loaned" to the Saltires, a move welcomed by Cricket Scotland and the national coach, Peter Steindl, although the reality is Poonia is only being released because he is not in the county's current first XI plans.

It all smacks of muddle and short-termism, but Watts at least sought to sound defiant yesterday. The Carlton opener said: "One of my tasks will be to try to re-instil the sense of self-belief which we need to bounce back from the defeat to Lancashire. Hopefully, the team will rally to the cause."

Youngsters Gordon Goudie and Richie Berrington are in the 13, but are unlikely to feature against Derbyshire on Sunday after being cleared to play for their clubs on Saturday.