England could face Scotland in Twenty20 - Clarke

The chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke, has given a strong indication that England could take on Scotland for a 20-over match a few weeks before the ICC World Twenty20 this summer.

England's first match of the tournament gets underway on June 5 against the Netherlands, but Clarke intimated that teams will need sufficient practice ahead of the event, with England tackling Scotland possibly on June 2 or 3.

"Almost certainly Scotland will have a warm-up game with England, probably at Trent Bridge," Clarke told the Edinburgh Evening News. "If I were allowed to bet - which I'm not - I'd expect a big travelling support for the Scots."

England have only faced Scotland once in an ODI - last August in Edinburgh, a match blighted by the summer's gloomy mizzle - and Clarke, whose mother was born in Glasgow, spoke of the need for Scottish cricket to gain a greater foothold. A permanent ground with adequate seating is one such area in which they could improve.

"Telling extremely able people who know Scottish cricket better than me what to do is the last thing on my mind. However, as someone who likes to consider themselves a friend of Scottish cricket, there are benefits to be gained if the right steps are put in place," he said. "I realise it is not the economic environment in which to develop a stadium but it is the right climate in which to have a building contract. Establishing a strong ground would help take the Saltires deeper into the [English] county structure which is necessary to move them forward and they have already come a long way in the short time they've been playing regular fixtures.

"The shorter the format the greater chance of a more level playing field and Twenty20 fixtures, perhaps against Durham, would help demonstrate crowd appeal. That would mean a [Scottish] economic base to get the sponsorship that drives youth athletes down the road to becoming professionals.

"It will require a quantum leap of faith and although I'm not a political person I do know [first minister] Alex Salmond is a cricket fanatic whose father has told me how he travelled by train to Lord's in 1938 to watch Wally Hammond make a double century against the touring Australians.

"I have spent a day with Alex Salmond and my hope is he is in a position to get an argument across for more [government] support of clubs provided they cater for all ages and genders."

Scotland have shown definite improvement as an Associate nation and, along with Ireland, are beginning to show that British Associate cricket is in a healthy state.

"They compete particularly well at Twenty20 and one day international level because they are fit, give little away in the field and are very, very tough," Clarke said. "There's no reason why similar goals should not be achievable by Scotland and with the ethnic groups preferring cricket to football there is an opportunity to go forward with them on board which should also be appealing in terms of integrating communities."