ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

The next Intercontinental Cup competition will be spread over three years, 2011-13 and will be contested by eight teams. The Intercontinental Shield will be abandoned. Zimbabwe will not take part so the Cup will revert to its original objective as a first-class competition for Associate and Affiliate countries. These will comprise the six countries which form Division 1 of the World Cricket League, namely Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland. They will be joined by two countries selected by the ICC Development Committee from those finishing in the top four places of the World Cricket League Division 2 competition held in Dubai in April 2011. These were, in order of finish, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong. The Committee, logically, chose the first two. Thus the United Arab Emirates and Namibia will return to the Intercontinental Cup after the absence of one tournament. This means that Uganda and Bermuda, relegated to Division 3, will no longer compete in multi-day cricket at first-class level, Hong Kong will not return to the first-class status they held briefly in 2005 and there is still no team from the Pacific at first-class level. 12 Introduction