ON the eve of Scotland's latest bid to qualify for an elite tournament, captain Kyle Coetzer has boldly declared that he has never been part of a stronger squad than the one currently on duty in the United Arab Emirates.

Coetzer, who had a non-playing role in the Craig Wright-captained squad that swept all-comers aside in the 2005 ICC Trophy to confirm they were the strongest force outside the Test scene at that time, believes the current mixture of professionals based on both sides of the border puts the famed alliance of Ryan Watson, Dougie Brown and company in the shade.

His comments may invite some scorn after a summer in which the Saltires were taken apart by the English counties like never before, and in which Scotland's only success came against Kenya in Aberdeen.

Coetzer himself is certainly one of the most gifted batsmen to have worn dark blue in the modern era, but his new-look team have much to prove as they begin their World Twenty20 qualifying quest early tomorrow morning against unfancied Bermuda.

"As a nation, we've definitely improved and the squad we have now is, I feel, the strongest that I've been involved in throughout my time playing for Scotland," the Northamptonshire player told The Scotsman.

"We've got strength in depth and people missing out who in previous years would have definitely gone along. That's a good problem to have. It's unfortunate for the people who do miss out but, more importantly in terms of cricket in Scotland is that we haven't played at a major tournament for a couple of years now and that's what our target is."

Indeed, Scotland's last involvement in a gathering of the global elite was in 2009 in England, when his own extraordinary catch against South Africa and sure hitting against New Zealand made memorable the team's brief World Twenty20 crusade.

Aberdonian Coetzer, who became a father for the first time in August, added: "We need to get Scottish cricket back on the map and that's where we deserve to be now. Pete and his coaching staff have put in a lot of hard work and tried everything they can, and it's down to us now. You can't ask the coaches to do any more. It's down to us to get our heads down and our big thing at the moment is just to find out whatever works. Just find a way."

The Scots lived up to their captain's billing yesterday when they produced another comfortable warm-up victory, seeing off hard-hitting Namibia with nine wickets and more than seven overs to spare.