As the national team aim to end a difficult season on a trophy-winning high the man who runs the governing body has called on the Scottish cricket community to show their support by turning out at this week’s One Day International matches against Hong Kong.

The difficulties faced in both arranging and staging international matches is a result of missing out on the elevated status accorded Afghanistan and Ireland, the end of the Scottish Saltires’ involvement in competitions involving English County sides and inclement weather.

While less can sometimes be more, then, in terms of generating interest, the evidence of last month’s matches between Scotland and the United Arab Emirates was that cricket lovers have instead lost the habit of watching the national team since attendances at The Grange were nowhere near to four figures.

Since entry to those matches was free the fact spectators will be charged £10 to attend these Braidwood Cup meetings with Hong Kong would seem risky but Malcolm Cannon, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland, is seeking recognition for the efforts his organisation is making to maintain Scottish involvement at top level.

“I fully understand how our schedule looks when you are comparing us with the likes of Ireland who have 15 one day internationals, but they and Afghanistan earned the right to the support they receive from the ICC (International Cricket Council),” he said.

“This season we have had a total of 10 days of home international cricket scheduled, six days of ICC competition and four one day internationals that we have paid for.

“We are consequently picking up the entire costs for these matches so we have to charge for entry and just as we want to get behind the Scottish cricket community we are hoping the Scottish cricket community will get behind us.”

The trophy the teams are playing for harks back to a time when cricket remained a rival to football in terms of domestic popularity and a Scot named William Drew Braidwood, brought the sport to Hong Kong after being appointed headmaster of the Victoria English School in the early 1890s.

The Scottish team have taken advantage of the limited opportunities it has been afforded in recent weeks with captain Preston Mommsen, vice captain Kyle Coetzer and Calum MacLeod all scoring centuries during the wins over the UAE while pace bowler Chris Sole, son of 1990 Grand Slam captain David, followed up on taking a three wicket haul on his ODI debut by claiming seven wickets in the course of Scotland A’s three day win over a Kent/Northants XI last week.