Bruce wants more exposure for Associates but acknowledges schedule crunch

Associate teams have run top-ranked teams close in the ongoing T20 World Cup, but why has closing out those contests remained a hurdle? For Scotland batter Tom Bruce, who also played international cricket for New Zealand, it's about players being able to apply their skills over sustained periods, which he believes will come only with regular exposure to top-tier opposition.

"Playing the tier-one nations, you want to push yourself against the best in the world, you want to compete with the best in the world," Bruce said. "It's always a challenge to be able to do that. In the 20-over format, you [need to do it] for all full 40 overs and the one-day format for 100 overs, being consistent.

"Just constantly challenging yourself and growing your game to then, when you come into the pressure situations, that you're ready to showcase your skills for the whole time, and not just the periods of time, which, throughout this tournament, we've done that as a Scotland team. In periods we've been the better team, but just not over the whole 40 overs, so that is the challenge. The challenge is also there because as tier-one and tier-two nations, you know, there's different facilities, there's different infrastructure, there's different funding."

Calls for a more inclusive calendar have grown louder during the tournament, with Nepal captain Rohit Paudel and Italy's stand-in captain Harry Manenti underlining the need for fixtures against top-ranked sides. Bruce echoed that sentiment, while acknowledging the constraints of an already crowded global schedule.

"I think it would be brilliant. There's been talk of it, but ultimately until we see action, nothing's going to probably happen," Bruce said. "We'd love to see more cricket, Associate nations against tier-one nations. There's been a lot of talk around the cricket calendar and what that needs to look like in order to accommodate international cricket, World Cups, franchise cricket, the Olympics is coming in, trying to get more nations playing cricket."

Netherlands opened the T20 World Cup by running Pakistan close, following which Nepal and USA gave England and India, respectively, serious scares. Scotland, too, came close to beating England in their previous game.

"You see the success stories, Scotland, Nepal, Italy, this tournament, you want to see more nations playing cricket and you want to see them playing against the best nations. Certainly when you look at the World Cup as a whole, it's exciting watching Associate nations play against tier-one nations, pushing them all the way, and people rooting for the underdog. Everyone wants an upset."

Bruce rued Scotland's missed chances against West Indies and England, matches they went on to lose from strong positions. Against West Indies, they were 115 for 3 in their chase, needing 68 off 41 balls, but lost their next seven wickets for 32 runs. In their previous game, they had stifled England in a 153-run chase before going on to lose with 10 balls remaining.

Having been given just two weeks' notice to get to the tournament after Bangladesh pulled out, Bruce said Scotland had performed beyond expectations.

"It kind of felt a little bit like deja vu [against England]. That's where ultimately the guys were disappointed that we weren't able to capitalise and got ourselves into really good positions, and we weren't able to get over the line. So a little bit disappointing, those two games, but at the same time, very positive knowing that off limited preparation, we're in positions to win games against both England and the West Indies.

"So certainly you've got to take a lot of positives out of that as well. But also on the flip side, you're only playing four games in a World Cup. You've got to be at your very best every single time. As Associate teams, you have to put in that complete performance against the tier-one nations."

Bruce, who played for New Zealand between 2017 and 2020, qualified to play for Scotland through his Edinburgh-born father and switched teams in 2025. He spoke about the contrasts between playing cricket in the two countries.

"It was a great time just playing T20s. I got to travel and play against a lot of different countries. I played against all the big nations.

"I've only just started my Scotland career, so it's hard to make too much judgement or give too much of an opinion on what we're doing well or what we could be doing better. So I think the positive is all the guys' attitudes are very, very good. There's a lot of passion, a lot of pride in playing for Scotland. The guys want to be playing on the world stage more often, so the attitude is brilliant, no matter what sort of resources or infrastructure or facilities that are available to the guys, they're putting their best foot forward, no matter what."

Bruce is wary of the Nepal challenge on Tuesday, but is excited about playing in front of the team's fans, who have turned out in huge numbers at the Wankhede Stadium.

"The last game against England we played in front of 50,000 [vs England in Kolkata] and they were supporting us. I think now we can expect probably less crowd, more noise, but to be supporting Nepal," Bruce said.

"We're going to expect them to be at their best tomorrow, and we have to prepared for that as well."