Franchise cricket will help Associates get better: Scotland’s Bruce

Ever since the T20 World Cup was expanded to allow more teams, associate nations have run full members close and on occasions even toppled them, with the United States and Nepal giving India and England a run for their money in this edition.Scotland batter Tom Bruce said the gap between associate sides and top-tier teams could be bridged by playing more often against stronger opponents, and added that franchise cricket could help associate nations improve.

“But how can we build up from there? That’s the burning question the associate members have asked over the last two weeks of the ongoing tourney. The lack of games against top-tier nations means they are never able to capilatise on that high as for the next two years they will be playing among themselves in their respective zones to qualify for the next edition besides competing in the World Cup League.”Bruce said more matches against leading teams would improve performance, while the ICC needed to chart out a framework for it. He said franchise cricket helped local players improve in countries that hosted such tournaments.“If you see the countries who have franchise tournaments, the local players are getting so much better. It’s only natural that’s going to happen when you surround yourself with the best players,” said the 34-year-old who played 20 T20Is and two ODIs for New Zealand before switching to Scotland last year.

He cited Nepal, Scotland’s opponents in their last Group C match at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday, saying the presence of overseas players in the Nepal Premier League could help Nepal’s players in the long run. He referred to players including Faf du Plessis, Dawid Malan, Martin Guptill, Wayne Parnell and Sohail Tanvir featuring in the league.Other associate nations with a T20 league are USA (Major League Cricket), Canada (Global T20 Canada) and UAE (ILT20), while the European T20 League was set to begin this year.Scotland entered the tournament after a last-minute invite when Bangladesh pulled out, and they looked to put up a fighting display as they did in previous editions. In 2021, they beat Bangladesh to reach the Super Six stage. In 2022, they toppled West Indies, and in the last edition, they narrowly missed qualification from their group on net run rate.Scotland fell short after showing promise in key matches. Against West Indies in their opening match, they were 115/3 while chasing 183 but lost seven wickets for 32 runs, including four wickets in a Romario Shepherd over, and lost by 35 runs.

They then defeated Italy by 73 runs before losing to England. Against England, Scotland were 113/3 in 12.3 overs but lost seven wickets for 39 runs and were bowled out for 152, which England chased with five wickets in hand.“The guys were disappointed that we weren't able to capitalise after getting ourselves into good positions. But at the same time, very positive knowing that despite limited preparation, we were in positions to win against England and the West Indies,” said Bruce who scored a 28-ball 35 against the Windies and 18-ball 24 against England.