ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

Associates was not lost, however, and the ICC Trophy was launched in 1979 on a one-day basis. Since then, the choice for international matches involving Associates and Affiliates has become the one-day 50-over contest with its advantages of being able to be played on Saturdays or Sundays, when most players are free from work commitments, and allowing more matches to be played, for example a series of three one-days instead of one three-day. The result was that by the 1990s the only three-day cricket played by Associates on a regular basis were the annual contests between Ireland and Scotland, which was ranked as first-class, and between Malaysia and Singapore, which was not. The Asian Cricket Council established a multi-day Fast Track Tournament in 2004, later to become the ACC Premier League, as a qualifying competition to determine which three Asian countries should make up the Asian Group in the Intercontinental Cup. The competition lasted three years but with the abandonment of geographical groupings in the Intercontinental Cup, it was then dropped. Assuming that multi-day is the ultimate format for cricket since it provides the greatest test of both team and individual skills and the opportunity to demonstrate both attacking and defensive play, adjusting tactics as the state of the game fluctuates over time, the case for setting up a competition for the Associate and Affiliate countries was compelling. Otherwise there was a real danger of the format dying out in international cricket at levels below the Full-Member countries, which would virtually ensure that none of the Associates and Affiliates could aspire to full membership because they would not have experience of cricket in all its forms. By the time the Intercontinental Cup was established, it was unable to contribute much to the international cricket of the three original proposers of such a competition in 1966. Sri Lanka had become a Full Member of the ICC, Fiji’s cricket had so declined that they were not considered as a possible participant and the United States lasted only one year in the competition. First-class matches played by Associate countries (excluding the Intercontinental Cup and Intercontinental Shield) Played Won Drawn Lost Argentina 1912-1938 13 3 4 6 Bermuda 1972 1 0 0 1 Canada 1951-1954 5 0 2 3 East Africa 1963-1975 6 0 1 5 Fiji 1895-1954 15 5 2 8 Ireland 1902-2010 124 26 54 44 Kenya 1986-2004 21 4 8 9 Namibia 2006-2011 44 8 16 20 South America 1932 6 2 1 3 Scotland 1905-2005 159 24 76 59 USA (Philadelphia) 1878-1913 78 25 10 43 USA-Canada combined 1913 1 0 0 1 Matches abandoned without a ball being bowled are excluded. Data as at 31 March 2011. Having decided to establish a multi-day competition, the question of whether the ICC should accord it first-class status was more open. Prior to its inauguration, only nine of the Associate countries had played first-class cricket. In addition, East Africa and South America had each played six first-class matches and a combined United States-Canada side one such match. The first match involving an Associate country which is recognised as first-class was that between Philadelphia and the visiting Australians, on their way home from England via North America, at Nicetown in October 1878. The match was drawn. From that date, Philadelphia’s cricket gradually improved. Five tours were made to England, the last three of which in 1897, 1903 and 1908, included first-class matches. Twelve parties of English cricketers visited Philadelphia between 1885 and 1907 and five tours were made by the Australians between 1878 and 1913, all of which contained first-class games. Philadelphia beat the Australians twice, by an innings and 69 runs in 1893 and an innings and 60 runs in 1896. In the first of these, the Australians played with no preparation, coming straight to Belmont in Philadelphia by train 2 Introduction