Scotland's world No.1 had just come through a formidable test at Perth's Dewars Centre yesterday but, having come off the rink to be met by a barrage of messages from friends and fellow bowlers, he was as angry as the tournament organisers about being hauled off air at the crucial moment.

"It's soul destroying," said Paul Foster, checking another buzz on his phone as he said so. "There's one of the girls at work texting to say, 'They bloody cut it off. Let us know how you finish.' My wife will be watching it back home and won't have a clue what's gone on. It's a shame, but we've had it for years and it'll never change because, unfortunately, bowls is a minority sport."

His comments betray the frustration of a four-time world champion who has been among the best in the world in his professional sport for some 20 years and maintains that status despite having to drive a taxi because he cannot make a living from bowling. This in a country where there is a bowling green in pretty much every village, town and city suburb.

Ahead of his understandable outburst I had, having previously reported on the paltry attendance at an event being contested by four Scottish world indoor champions and at which day tickets cost a mere £4, received a call from an old pal who wanted to share a similar experience from a few years ago.

Ron Evans had, back then, been filming a curling event at the Braehead Arena, the Glynhill Ladies International Open, which boasted a strong field including Eve Muirhead, who had just skipped the Great Britain team at the Olympics. "Never mind £4; people could just walk in and watch, but no-one did," he said. He found it all the more irritating because Muirhead, whom he jokingly described as "one of those annoying people who seems to be good at everything they try", boasts genuine star quality that is not being properly tapped into.

Ron has no axe to grind, other than being a huge sports enthusiast, but his observations over the failure to promote world-class sports people properly echoed those of Muirhead herself when she and her rink were named as the first Scots in the Great Britain team for the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

"If we could get a few more ladies' team events, I think that would generate interest," she said. "That's why we go to Canada. If we can step it up and create that in Scotland, people would want to come here."

My own view is that the poor attendances are down to an absence of enough events to form, within the respective communities, the habit of supporting them. That, in turn, brings me back to the bowls and the part-explanation offered by David Gourlay, the world No.2 indoor bowler and head coach of Scotland's Commonwealth Games team, for the low attendance in Perth. "I think we're maybe a victim of the success of the TV coverage, which is exceptional," he observed.

Setting aside whether or not he might revise that view after what happened during the match between his fellow Ayrshiremen Foster and world champion Stewart Anderson yesterday, he may have a point, but properly seized upon, television coverage can boost live attendance rather than reduce it.

Well-marketed televised bowls events in the Antipodes attract huge attendances, as do curling competitions in Canada. Nor can it be said it is somehow a cultural issue that Scots will not go to watch sport, as confirmed by the presence of more than 32,000 people at Murrayfield last Saturday. For all that a percentage of those attending will have acquired their tickets as part of package promotions, tied in with the more glamorous meetings with South Africa and Australia, it remains something of a coup for the Scottish Rugby Union's marketeers.

Another example from recent experience was the extraordinary gathering at Ingliston the other weekend where thousands flocked to watch the Coral Masters darts, effectively paying some £30 a head to sit in a large barn watching proceedings on big-screen telly, since no-one can see the board.

That there is not a Scottish world champion in sight at Ingliston or Murrayfield only serves to reinforce the impression that our curlers and bowlers, among many others, are being let down by the failure of administrators.

Since so much of the money that should be spent on staging and promoting the sort of events that would get those interested in minority sports into the way of supporting outstanding Scottish talent is centrally controlled by government-funded quangos, maybe Foster should take more of an interest in those he was punted off-air for this afternoon. It was, after all, Politics Scotland that took over.

Whether anyone at Holyrood has a clue about the importance of promoting our sportsmen in order to boost their confidence and their chances of success on the global stage is quite another matter.