TUESDAY’S one-day international between Scotland and Pakistan proved that the game has a rightful place in the sporting calendar and made a strong case for increased public funding, Cricket Scotland argued yesterday.
 
An entertaining match won by five wickets by Pakistan in front of a crowd of 3200 will earn the sport’s governing body between £60,000 and £70,000, according to chief executive Roddy Smith. If such games were played on a regular basis a professional national side could be sustained, but this was a standalone fixture and India’s visit is likely to be the only major earner of next summer.
 
Smith believes that the only way to maximise cricket’s potential, and enable Scotland to continue improving, is for the Executive to free up more funding to support high-level cricket. Currently an annual sum of £50,000 from the public purse goes towards the national side’s activities.
 
“We only have two other sports in the country that could have put 3000 people in a ground and given them a competitive match against one of the best teams in the world,” Smith said yesterday.
 
“That’s a pretty compelling case that we have to be taken seriously as a major Scottish sport, and we will be stressing that point over the next two or three weeks.”
 
Tuesday’s attendance could have been several hundred higher had CS not enforced an all-ticket capacity of 3200, in fear of losing money on unfilled temporary stands. Typically, the phones were hot with enquiries in the week after the last ticket was sold.
 
“The main positive for us, after the washout of last year’s Australia game, was that another damp squib might have put people off,” Smith said. “If it had gone wrong on the field and we had been thrashed we would have been asking people to come back next year looking for a third bite of the cherry. That didn’t happen, and I hope yesterday will be a catalyst.”
 
Ryan Watson, fresh from his critical innings of 80 against Pakistan, will today inherit the honour of captaining the first European XI in the absence of the injured Craig Wright. Ross Lyons and Dewald Nel join Watson in the European side to play MCC, with Chris Cairns in their ranks, in Rotterdam.