Scotland coach Grant hails Desert success

GRANT BRADBURN last night revealed his aim to double the number of game days for Scotland’s actionstarved cricketers.

Speaking in the wake of his team’s exit from the inaugural Desert T20, the national coach hailed the success of the new tournament and said it should be an annual feature of an increased fixture list for his side.

Bradburn’s men fell at the penultimate hurdle of the eight-team event when they lost their semi-final to Ireland on Friday.

But the competition has whetted Scotland’s appetite for more top-flight action.

Bradburn said: “We’d obviously love to play more cricket. The whole concept of the Desert T20 has been a huge success and big credit to the UAE for hosting it and all the associate countries for committing to it. Hopefully some of the performances have raised a few eyebrows particularly in commercial departments in the cricketing world.

“We’re desperate to play as much as we can and are working hard to create a schedule to include as many of the top nations as possible.

“In 2016 we played 25 days of cricket – 17 of which were rain-affected.

“That’s just not enough for a group of 20 contracted players. Cricket Scotland are working hard to achieve 45-50 days of cricket which we believe we need.

“I don’t think we’ll get there this year but we should be closer to 40 days than 25.”

Meanwhile, Scotland will today play their fifth competitive game of the new year when they take on Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi in the opening fixture of an ODI tri-series also featuring UAE.