All 12 squads have now been named ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifying Tournament, which takes place in South Africa next month.

Defending champions Scotland have named a strong panel that includes the experience of proven performers such as Craig Wright, Gavin Hamilton, Neil McCallum and Colin Smith along with more youthful talent of the likes of Durham batsman Kyle Coetzer, all-rounder Majid Haq from Paisley and 22-year-old Glaswegian batsman Navdeep Poonia.

This year's tournament promises to be a closely fought event with the top four sides qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Apart from the Scots, the other five teams that took part in the last World Cup – Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya and the Netherlands – will be taking part along with Denmark, Namibia, Oman and United Arab Emirates from Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Two and the two qualifiers from Division Three, Afghanistan and Uganda.

From North America, across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the tournament , formerly known as the ICC Trophy, brings together the best international cricketers from beyond the Full Members all gripped by the dream of playing in the world's biggest cricket event.

Day one of the event could present Scotland with their toughest test as they will come up against fierce rivals Ireland in an ODI at Willowmoore Park in what will be a repeat of the final in 2005.

Scotland were victorious on that occasion nearly four years ago in Dublin but Ryan Watson and his men will know the Irish will be out to make sure it doesn't happen again.

For their part, Ireland have also named a formidable line-up which is led by William Porterfield and includes heroes from the 2007 World Cup such as Trent Johnston, Boyd Rankin and Niall O'Brien as well as Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan and Surrey's Gary Wilson.

But those two Associate powerhouses might not be fighting it out at the end as well as the beginning. Each of the other 10 countries will be hell-bent on making the last four.

Other top players who will be on show include Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands), David Hemp (Bermuda), Ashish Bagai (Canada), Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan), Freddie Klokker (Denmark), Thomas Odoyo (Kenya), Gerrie Snyman (Namibia), Hemal Mehta (Oman), Saqib Ali (UAE) and Junior Kwebiha (Uganda), each one of them capable of turning a game on his own.

Among the named squads are WCL Division Three qualifiers Afghanistan and Uganda, who add an element of the unknown for many of the more established teams who will not have seen much of those opponents prior to the start of the event on April 1.

The 12 teams taking part in the qualifiers are split into two groups of six teams. Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Oman, Namibia and Uganda make up Group A while Kenya, Netherlands, Bermuda, UAE, Denmark and Afghanistan form Group B.

Each side will play the other teams in their group once with the top four from the groups progressing to the Super Eight stage.

The teams will each play four Super Eight matches against the sides they did not meet in the group stage. All points won in the groups will be carried over to the Super Eight stage apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group.

The top two teams in the Super Eight stage will contest the final to be played at Centurion on April 19. The third and fourth-placed sides will play off at Potchefstroom, the fifth and sixth-placed sides play off at Willowmoore Park while the seventh and eighth-placed teams play off at Stan Friedman Oval, Krugersdorp.

The eventual top four sides will earn a berth at the 2011Cricket World Cup while the top six will secure ODI status until 2013 and also qualify automatically for the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10.

The bottom two teams, if they currently play in Divisions One and Two of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League, will be relegated to Division Three.