Thirty three largely drookit summers have elapsed since the day that went down in folklore as Scottish cricket’s greatest when the villagers of Freuchie went to the home of the sport and defeated a team from the heart of the stockbroker belt.

It was a joyous, riotous affair even, as they first became known as the Lairds of Lord’s and subsequently as Dad’s Army, in recognition of venerable skipper Dave Christie’s nickname, the party starting on the team bus which was filled with supporters and a couple of us media men as well as the players and continuing through the weekend.

Ian Botham, the most celebrated cricketer of the era, joined the post-match booze-up after the Fifers had put on a memorable display with bat – notably when Stewart ‘Jasper’ Irvine had Lord’s regulars spluttering their comparisons with Gary Sobers after he knocked the ball over the Tavern and out of the ground – with ball, but most particularly with a fielding display that spoke to an unquenchable, in every sense, spirit.

A rough and ready bunch in many ways, Davie ‘the Coo’ Cowan, going on to represent Scotland as a carefree all-rounder while there were several other fine cricketers including the Crichton brothers - George and Andy - and Terry Trewartha, who had previously won the Village Cup’s longest throw competition. Their resolve and match awareness was meanwhile summed up as Brian Christie, Dad’s lad, doored out the final over, knowing that with the scores tied he need only survive for them to win on wickets down.

On Sunday, however, as the only journalist to have attended both, I finally attended a match involving a Scottish team that matched that sense of occasion, while surpassing it on many levels in terms of scale. There was a truly epic quality to Scotland’s defeat of world number one ranked England on Sunday as they first registered a One Day International record of their own in reaching a mammoth 371 for five built around Calum MacLeod’s stunning 140 not out, then collectively held their nerve in the face of a ferocious counter-attack led by the global game’s most in-form batsman, as Jonny Bairstow rattled up his third successive ODI century in next to no time.

What added even more importance to this performance than who the opposition were, however, was the timing, just a few weeks after the team was dealt a sickening blow through the nature of their failure to reach the World Cup finals after reaching new heights during the qualifying tournament.

Admittedly, the first instinct was to question those who were instantly claiming this as one of Scottish sport’s greatest moments, worthy of comparison with such wins over the Auld Enemy as the ‘Grand Slam’ triumph of 1990 or the first defeat of England’s World Cup winners at Wembley in 1967 since this was a one-off encounter, without any sort of Five Nations or Home International title at stake.

Yet the value of this victory could prove even greater than those if, as it should, it forces international administrators to take note of the disgraceful disservice they are doing the sport by denying players and teams of this calibre the opportunity to compete on the world stage.

The Scots are by no means alone in being mistreated by the International Cricket Council and every other one of the cricketing nations disparagingly accorded ‘associate’ status alongside the privileged dozen who are allowed to take part in Test matches, will have celebrated along with them after an all-round display that genuinely feels worthy of being ranked alongside anything that previous Scottish national teams have achieved.