Abbi flew out of Edinburgh on Friday and she and her team mates will spend 11 days in the South African city of Stellenbosh.

The World Cup qualifying matches should have been held in Pakistan in November, but were postponed because of the political situation in that country.

A second attempt was made to hold the tournament in Pakistan, then a month ago, the cricket authorities decided on a switch to South Africa.
Scotland are in a four-team group along with Pakistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe. They will play each of these teams in a round-robin competition, with the top two teams qualifying for the semi-finals.

Ultimately, the two finalists in the competition, will earn a place in the World Cup finals in Australia in 2009.

Abbi (16) says Scotland are an inexperienced side with seven of the 13-woman squad members of the U21 team.

They have also lost their coach and their team captain, but they have gone to South Africa, determined to give it their best shot.

Abbi, who is in S5 at Montrose Academy, finished her higher prelims just before leaving for the tournament.

She will either open the bowling for her country or be first-change and bats middle to lower order.

Montrose could have had two representatives in the Scotland squad, as 17-year-old Caroline Heron was also selected, but she injured a knee and was unable to go.

It is a case of play cricket and see the world for Abbi, as she was in Amsterdam in August for the women's European Championships and is one of four young Scots women selected to attend a training camp in Spain in April. The camp will be attended by around 20 of the top young female cricketers from around Europe.

Abbi captained the Montrose Cricket Club 15s and 17s sides in the past season. She didn't get as many games for the Montrose 1st X1 as she would have liked because of her training committments.

Abbi, who also plays football competitively, was Scottish Women's Cricket Player of the Year in 2007 and runner-up this year.