the cricketing sense, and in 1994 was elected to Associate Membership of the International Cricket Council (ICC). This gave Scotland its own voice in world cricket and the national team took part for the first time in the ICC Trophy held in Kuala Lumpur in March/April 1997. Third place qualified Scotland for the ICC World Cup in 1999 hosted by England, and Scotland themselves hosted two games (against New Zealand & Bangladesh) at The Grange Club in Edinburgh. Although failing to qualify for the 2003 World Cup, Scotland made significant inroads in professionalising the game in Scotland. The first part of this was Scotland's acceptance into the English Sunday League competition in 2003, for a period of three years. This involved playing a minimum of 18 matches of top class cricket against the English counties, giving both players and administrators the level of experience necessary for Scotland's progress to One-Day International status. In a halcyon period for the Scotland International side, they won the inaugural (three-day) ICC Intercontinental Cup in November 2004, and then the 2005 ICC Trophy in Dublin by beating old rivals Ireland, putting the Scots into 12th place in the global rankings. This gave Scotland qualification for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. Placed in the hardest Group, no successes were achieved in the Tournament and there was further disappointment at not achieving qualification for the 2011 World Cup. The International teams then entered a transitional phase, with the retiral of several key players from the previous few years. It was 2011 before Scotland emerged with a fully competitive team, most notably winning four consecutive One Day Internationals against Afghanistan, Netherlands (twice) and Ireland. Following defeat by Sri Lanka, they continued a successful path by beating Northamptonshire and Warwickshire on consecutive days in the CB40 Competition. Administration The governing body for Scottish cricket is Cricket Scotland, which administers women's cricket and junior cricket as well as the men's game. The then Scottish Cricket Union resigned from the UK Cricket Council in 1992, effectively severing links with the organisation of cricket in England and Wales. In 1994 Scotland became an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council. Men's national team The Scottish men's team competed in the Cricket World Cup in 1999. It lost all five of its matches and was eliminated in the preliminary round. Scotland failed to qualify for the 2003 World Cup but