ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Played Won Drawn Lost Won on first inns Lost on first inns 2 1 0 0 1 Highest team total 297-9 dec v Bermuda Hamilton 2004 Lowest team total 126 v Canada Fort Lauderdale 2004 Highest individual total 104 S.J.Massiah v Bermuda Hamilton 2004 Best bowling analysis 5-38 H.R.Johnson v Bermuda Hamilton 2004 Best wicketkeeping 4 c M.R.Johnson v Canada Fort Lauderdale 2004 The United States played only in the first year of the competition when it was organised in regional groups. They should have taken part the following year but, by then, the ICC had suspended the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) and barred them from official ICC tournaments because of serious concerns about the way it was running its affairs. By the time the USACA had satisfied the ICC about their corporate management and financial transparency, the Intercontinental Cup had been reorganised into a single league involving the top eight countries from the ICC Trophy competition, a criterion which excluded the USA. In their one year of competition, they used 13 players in their two matches, only two of whom, Leon Romero and Jignesh Desai, were born in the country. Four of the players had previously been involved in first-class cricket, Romero, Richard Staple and Clayton Lambert in the West Indies and Nasir Javed in Pakistan. Lambert had also represented the West Indies in five Test matches. The team was therefore very experienced but rather old, with nine of the thirteen having been born in the 1960s. Although they finished only three points behind Canada in the America Group as a result of an easy win over Bermuda, they were not really serious challengers after losing to Canada by 101 runs. The team just did not live up to its potential. Whilst Howard Johnson (right arm medium fast) and Nasir Javed (leg breaks and googlies) performed well as part of a varied bowling attack, the batting proved unreliable. Steve Massiah was the only person to pass the half-century. Mark Johnson was a capable wicketkeeper. In terms of overall career records, however, Massiah was the only player who approached the standard of the Philadelphian cricketers of the past. Little seems to have changed since. American sides are still much older than those of other countries and selection reliant on expatriates of Caribbean or Indian sub-continental origin and their descendants. ZIMBABWE XI Played Won Drawn Lost Won on first inns Lost on first inns 6 3 1 1 1† † Match against Scotland in 2010 forfeited by Zimbabwe XI Highest team total 590 v Ireland Harare 2010 Lowest team total 298 v Netherlands Amstelveen 2010 Highest individual total 209 V.Sibanda v Kenya Kwekwe 2009 Best bowling analysis 6-106 T.Maruma v Afghanistan Mutare 2009 Best wicketkeeping 3 c R.W.Chakabva v Canada King City (NW) 2010 3 c R.W.Chakabva v Ireland Harare 2010 Invited by the ICC to take part in the 2009-10 tournament, fielding the equivalent of either an “A” side or a development eleven, the intention was to provide the younger generation of Zimbabwean players with some international experience and help prepare them for their 280 Countries