By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Durban : Despite the popularity of Twenty20, Test cricket would remain the true-blue form of the game, Scottish captain Ryan Watson said here as his team prepared to head home after their final game in the first round, against India on Thursday, ended in a draw because of rain.
“Twenty20 cricket is a good concept, which enjoys immense popularity with the masses, but it should not be played at the expense of Test and one-day cricket,” Watson told the Afrikaans daily Beeld here.
“It can certainly take its rightful place alongside the other two formats of the game, but Test and one-day cricket will continue to set the tone.”
Watson conceded though that Twenty20 could assist in establishing cricket in countries where the game was not played. “A big advantage is that it could allow cricket to gain a foothold for development of the game in such countries.”
Scotland does not enjoy Test status from the International Cricket Council and gets little exposure even to one-day and Twenty20 cricket. The country qualified for the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Championship being played out in South Africa after making it to the finals of the qualifier in Kenya, where the hosts beat them.
“We still have a lot to learn about fast cricket, which is a bit strange to us, and therefore it was disappointing that the match against India was rained out,” Watson said. Their only other game was against Pakistan, which Scotland lost.
But despite being ousted, the Scots are still going home with a fat cheque.
Every team in the tournament receives 1.8 million rands ($250,000) for its participation, while every team that wins a game in the first group round gets another 110,000 rands. The Scots thus got a windfall of 55,000 rand for the undecided game against India, which commentators said they were unlikely to get if the match had been played.