Focus on Test cricket hurt Australia's ICC World T20 chances, says Steve Waugh

New Delhi: Former Australia skipper Steve Waugh praised Cricket Australia for prioritising Test cricket over Twenty20 internationals, but opined on the fact that it played a part in Australia’s disappointing showing at the ICC World T20 in India.

According to a report in cricket.com.au, Waugh praised Cricket Australia for putting Test cricket on the pedestal which he felt is great for cricket. But for that the T20 format suffered.

"To Cricket Australia's credit, we have put Test cricket on a pedestal, we've put that above all else, which I think is a great thing for cricket. Not many other countries are doing that. The down side to that was that the Twenty20 side [of the game] suffered with players in and out and [they] didn't get a consistent role in the side and they just fell short in India,” said Waugh.

Waugh said that Australia did not play enough T20I cricket in the past 12-18 months and also swapped the team.

"We probably haven't played enough Twenty20 cricket in the past 12-18 months and we swapped the team about a fair bit," Waugh said.

Australia bowed out of the World T20 group stage itself and registered losses against New Zealand and India.

Australia are ranked the No. 1 Test team and have dominated the longer format of the game for quite some time now under Steve Smith.