Abu Dhabi, Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer said Chris Greaves has shown to the world the quality of players the Associate nations boast of and hinted at ICC providing more platforms to them to showcase their talent on a regular basis.
He said the all-round performance of Greaves, who is an Amazon delivery man, was not a surprise as he had loads of ability to do so. Greaves has worked extremely hard as he was not a contracted player in Scotland and was on the fringes, he said.
“Greaves put his hand up, worked extremely hard and put himself in the picture. A month back, he was also not sure he would start in one of these games. And just look at what he has done,” he said in a media interaction organised by ICC.
Greaves smashed a crucial 45 off 28 balls to post a respectable 140 for 9, after Scotland were in a spot of bother with the score reading 53 for 6.
Later, he bagged two crucial wickets of Shakib-al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, with his leg spin to restrict Bangladesh to 134 for 9 in reply in their opening match of the 2021 T20 WC.
Coetzer indirectly appealed to the International Cricket Council to provide more platforms to the Associate nations to show their skills at the highest level.
“Nations like Scotland, Nepal or Malaysia (Associate nations) when they perform and have a good game and win games of cricket it drives the cricket within their country,” he said.
“When opportunities are dried up, it is very hard to encourage cricket in Scotland. So you want to utilise the opportunities coming your way. The T20 World Cup was the platform we got and everyone saw our performance on TV.”
The win last night showed the strength and depth we have amongst our players and the belief we have. That certainly is a great start to the tournament,” he said.
Exposure, Coetzer said, is very important for any Associate team, and hence his side used the opportunity to their optimum level and gave their best shot by beating a regular team like Bangladesh.
(EW Correspondent)
