Calum MacLeod has been approved as a replacement player for John Blain in Scotland's squad for the ICC World T20.

Former Northamptonshire and Yorkshire seamer Blain, who is now academy coach at Headingley, pulled out from the squad for personal reasons following reports of a row within the dressing room in the aftermath of Friday's warm-up defeat against Bangladesh.

An appeal was made to the tournament's event technical committee, who gave permission for 20-year-old MacLeod to become a replacement because of the "exceptional circumstances of this case".

The ICC would not normally allow a replacement for anything other than medical grounds, but today's decision at least allows Scotland a full squad for tomorrow's warm-up match against England.

"After a practice match on Saturday there was a team meeting and some harsh words were said," confirmed Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith.

"John then decided he wanted to leave the squad. He's a grown man and able to make his own decisions. We respect his decision and it gives Calum an opportunity.

It had to be done

"The replacement definitely wasn't made on medical grounds. The ICC obviously didn't want us to go into the tournament with only 14 players in our squad instead of 15."

Blain was hit for 43 runs in four overs during Friday's mauling by Bangladesh at Wormsley and his experience will be missed by a Scotland side hoping to cause an upset in the tournament.

They can at least now look at the potential of 20-year-old seamer MacLeod, who forced his way into Warwickshire's first team last season and is regarded as a big prospect at Edgbaston.

He has two warm-up matches against England at Trent Bridge tomorrow and against Holland at The Oval on Wednesday to convince Scotland he is ready to start in their opening match of the tournament against New Zealand on Saturday.

When rivals clash

For now, though, captain Gavin Hamilton is focussing on facing traditional rivals England, stressing: "Up in Scotland, the interest is going to be second to none.

"It will be really big pressure playing against England, and it will be nice to find out where we are as a team - and who can cope with that kind of environment.

"If there is a chance (of beating England) it will be in Twenty20, but the other side of the coin is it could completely go the other way and you could get completely blown out of the park.

"Any England-Scotland game is as big as it gets. It doesn't matter where you're playing, who against - it's always massive, but we've got to hold our heads high, perform and hit England back if they come at us."

Scotland's only previous international meeting with England was last year in Edinburgh when their one-day international was washed out, but Hamilton believes he saw enough there to suggest Scotland are improving.

"If we're backing each other - and everyone has a good idea of what their job is - then I don't think we'll be a million miles away," he said.

"The development we've shown over three days is absolutely outstanding. We have a habit of taking a couple of steps backwards every now and then - which is frustrating - but it is being addressed and we just need to maintain the momentum."