ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

Introduction The Intercontinental Cup was started by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to give the leading Associate and Affiliate countries the opportunity of playing multi-day or two-innings cricket. The competition was part of the ICC’s Global Development Programme which began in 1997. Before the competition was launched in 2004, the Manager of that programme, Matthew Kennedy, stated that “ multi-day competitive international matches are essential to the development of cricket in these countries ” and that the initiative would “ provide new opportunities for non-Test playing nations to participate in international cricket competition ”. The ICC decided from the outset that the matches would be first-class. The competition was intended to be part of the ICC’s work aimed at reducing the gap in standard between the top Associate and Affiliate countries and that of the Full-Member countries. Initially, performance in the Intercontinental Cup was specifically included as a criterion to be considered in applications for Full-Member status but it was dropped from the revised guidelines in December 2010. The competition was first organised in geographical groups. It comprised twelve teams, three in each group comprising Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. The winners of each group qualified for the semi-finals. There was no place for the ICC’s East Asia-Pacific Group because it was felt that in none of the countries in that group was cricket of a sufficiently high standard. The regional format lasted for two competitions, by which time it was apparent that there were considerable differences in standard between the four groups. It was doubtful whether the weaker countries in some groups were truly at first-class level and able to cope with the demands of multi-day cricket whilst two, if not even all three, countries in the European group were arguably strong enough to be in the semi-finals but there was a place for only one. The decision was taken to reduce the number of countries to eight. For one year, these were divided into two groups with the winner of each group meeting in the final. After that a single all-play-all league was adopted with the top two teams contesting the final. The decision to reduce further the number of teams to six in 2009-10 proved unwise. It meant that Namibia, Bermuda and the United Arab Emirates lost their first-class status which was particularly unfortunate for Namibia who were the runners-up in 2008-09 and who were playing with moderate success in South Africa’s domestic first-class provincial competition. To rectify this, the Intercontinental Shield was established and also given first-class rating. The ICC then went against the concept of a six-team competition by giving an opening to Zimbabwe to enter effectively an A-side or Development XI as part of a programme to return that country to Test cricket. For 2011-13, the Intercontinental Cup returns to eight teams and the Intercontinental Shield is dropped. There was certainly a strong case for the establishment of a competition which gave Associate and Affiliate countries the chance to play both multi-day and first-class cricket. For the Associate countries with a long history of cricket, most of their international matches had been of two innings spread over at least two days. The Interport matches involving Hong Kong, All-Malaya and Shanghai which began in 1866 and finished in 1987 were of this format as were the East African Triangular and Quadrangular tournaments between 1966 and 1980. Other examples include the matches between the United States and Canada played, with various gaps, between 1844 and 1995, those from 1963 being for the K.A.Auty Trophy, and the so-called Continental Tests between The Netherlands and Denmark played from 1955 to 1981. Although multi-day, none of these matches was first-class. By the mid 2000s the only regular multi-day competition among the Associates was the annual fixture between Malaysia and Singapore for the Saudara Cup. Otherwise, all Associate and Affiliate cricket was one-day 50-overs or twenty20. In 1966, a proposal was put to the ICC by Philip Snow, the representative from Fiji, for a contest for the Associate countries based on two- or three-day matches. It was supported by Gamini Goonesena and John Marder, representatives of Sri Lanka, then an Associate member, and the United States respectively. The proposal made no progress because it was considered too difficult to organise and too time-consuming for amateur players. The idea of a tournament for 1