On the eve of a new cricket season, Craig Wright, the former Saltires captain, is a man on several missions. As leader of Greenock, last season's double winners, Wright is committed to helping the Glenpark side mount a successful defence of their Scottish National Cricket League and Scottish Cup titles. And as one of the most successful players ever to don a Scotland shirt, the tall all-rounder is also resolved to playing his part in another hectic international season.

Yet, following his appointment as Scotland's first performance development manager, Wright has a third and perhaps even more important priority for the coming season.

Thanks to Wright's tireless campaigning in the face of sometimes fierce opposition, the national Under-19 side will this season take their place in the top flight of the SNCL.

Scotland's youth supremo, who has also successfully entered an Under-17 team into England's U-17 county championship and masterminded two under-age tours to South Africa, had to campaign long and hard to before seeing his latest brainchild come to fruition.

Diplomatic skills and compromise were also brought to bear on some fraught negotiations during which clubs were naturally anxious to preserve their own interests.

Wright had hoped that the U-19s would play a full part in the league with a programme of 18 fixtures. Due to those dissenting voices, though, he was forced to accept a nine-game schedule. The Colts will be in a unique position, unable to be either promoted or relegated and, with just half of the normal points available for the matches in which they are involved, they are in danger of being perceived as bit-part players in the SNCL.

The originally intended schedule may have been diluted but Wright's enthusiasm clearly has not. "To my mind, this is one of the most important developments in our game of recent times," insisted Scotland's most capped player.

"The rationale behind the U-19s joining the league is pretty simple and also explains some of the other stuff I've tried to put in place like the U-17s going into their county championship and the recent overseas tour. My view is simply that our best young players don't play enough truly challenging cricket. As performance development manager it is my duty to put a programme in place that will give our developing players the best possible chance to reach their full potential.

"Hopefully the U-19s will experience a higher standard of opposition on a regular basis than they ever have before and learn how to cope with tough match situations. We have to make sure that by the time they leave our U-19 programme these kids are equipped to go on to the next level."

Wright's young charges include several members of the Under-20 side who recently completed a nine-game unbeaten tour to South Africa and have already shown keen competitive instincts.

Keith Morton, the left-arm spinner and son of former Warwickshire player, Willie, twice claimed career-best figures in Port Elizabeth, while hard-hitting Arbroath batsman Marc Petrie and Dunfermline seamer Matthew Bremner are others who will relish this new challenge.

It is a measure of Wright's commitment to this groundbreaking experiment that he will be at Shawholm rather than the Citylets Grange next Sunday afternoon.

As head coach of the U-19s, Wright has passed up the opportunity to face Lancashire Lightning in the Saltires' first FP Trophy match of the season in favour of mentoring his young side in their opening SNCL clash against Poloc.

"It wasn't a difficult decision to make," he stressed. "This is a project I firmly believe in and my commitments nowadays are more varied than in the past. I want to be there to see how the lads perform in what is going to be the first of many stiff tests for them.

"In an ideal world I'd like to see the U-19s win as many games as possible during the season but it's difficult to tell what is realistic. I honestly don't know what to expect but I will regard it as a success if the young players learn and improve from the experience of playing against the country's top club sides."

These sides, of course, include Wright's own formidable Greenock outfit but he insists there will be no conflict of interest when the kids turn up at Glenpark on May 11. "There will be no question of any clash of loyalties for me. When I cross the white line as a cricketer I am out there to win – regardless of the opposition. The whole point of having these kids in the SNCL is to let them face the toughest competition around so if anyone takes it easy the whole experiment is compromised."

If it is difficultto predict how the Colts will fare, it is not much easier to pick potential champions from a premier division race which looks wide open. Greenock, inevitably, will launch a stout defence of their title but, having lost Fraser Watts and Kevin McLaren to Carlton and Corstorphine respectively, Wright's side will find their resources stretched.

Ferguslie, last year's runners-up, would surely have been genuine contenders had Saltires star John Blain gone through with his proposed move to Meikleriggs.

Instead the main challenge to the champions may come from the capital where Carlton look capable of building on last year's promise to mount a sustained bid.

However Grange, having swapped George Bailey's runs for Warren McSkimming's wickets and having received a further boost by the surprise return to Edinburgh of the former Saltires batsman Cameron Coles, look strongest of all.