Mark Watt (centre) is going to his fifth T20 World Cup. Shovelling snow, finding childcare, and a frenetic scramble for plane tickets. It's been an unexpectedly stressful few weeks for Scotland's cricketers, who were thrust into action by Bangladesh's decision to boycott the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

The Scots were called up by the International Cricket Council (ICC) by virtue of being the highest-ranked team not already at the tournament, but the players were finding out as everyone else was - via social media and news outlets.

"It was just so many screenshots of Bangladeshi journalists and all these tweets," Scotland spinner Mark Watt told the BBC's No Balls: The Cricket Podcast. "All the boys were just flying round saying 'is this true? Is this going to be happening?' "It was like that scene in The Office - 'it's happening, it's happening, stay calm'.

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Scotland had failed to reach the World Cup because of a hugely disappointing qualifying campaign in the Netherlands last summer, which included defeats by Italy and Jersey.

"It's so surreal," Watt said. "I did a chat at a local club and they were saying, 'what are you going to do when the World Cup's on?' And I was like, 'I'm not even going to watch any games because I'm still so gutted that we're not playing in it'.

Instead of prepping for subcontinental conditions, players based in Scotland were undergoing fitness programmes and going about their day-to-day lives when the news started to filter through.

"[Strong class="player-name"]Michael Leask[/strong] lives in Aberdeen and he was shovelling snow as we were getting all these calls," Watt said. "We were doing boxing and between sets we're saying 'do you think we're actually going to go?' Not a lot of cricket was going on, it was other things. [Strong class="player-name"]Matthew Cross[/strong] is trying to build his house at the moment, so he's doing all his DIY. He's been stressed trying to get other people to go in and do the stuff he was going to do.

"People who have kids were trying to get them minded. I got all my holidays out of the way last year. I was looking forward to a little break, but I'm very happy to be here."

The last-minute nature of Scotland's entry has drawn comparisons to a famous equivalent in the world of football. "Everyone keeps saying Denmark [at the Euros] in 1992, because they didn't qualify and won it," Watt said. "Anything's possible. Imagine that?"

Brandon McMullen scored a blistering 39-ball 95 in Scotland's narrow warm-up defeat by Namibia. After Watt and his team-mates knew they were going to India, they were not sure when they would depart. Flights were booked in the hope that visas would come through, and when they did the rush to get halfway around the world began.

"It was like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," Watt said. "I got my golden ticket and I was like, 'you need to get me on the flight tonight'. Leasky in Aberdeen had to drive two and a half hours to Edinburgh, he got his visa through the same time as me. We're all so excited and so grateful this opportunity came about, but also feel sorry for Bangladesh on the other side of it.

Scotland are one of five European sides at the competition and one of nine associate ICC members. After warm-up defeats by Afghanistan and Namibia, they take on West Indies in their opening match on Saturday, before games against Italy, England and Nepal in Group C, with the top two progressing to the Super 8s.

Watt says the prospect of seeing different match-ups can only be a positive. "Obviously I've got a bit of favouritism for their associates," he said. "But I just think the more the merrier. You see these Test-playing nations play against each other so often, it's a little bit samey and I think it's really refreshing when the associates come to play against these big teams.

"Obviously sometimes the results don't go your way, but it's the only way these teams and ourselves are going to learn how to play against them. So it's a great learning curve, but also, we're not there just to learn, but we're there to beat teams."

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