The 2015–2017 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the seventh edition of the

ICC Intercontinental Cup The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first ...

, an international

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

tournament between leading

associate members Associate may refer to: Academics * Associate degree, a two-year educational degree in the United States, and some areas of Canada * Associate professor, an academic rank at a college or university * Technical associate or Senmonshi, a Japan ...

of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC). The tournament took place during 2015 to 2017. It ran in parallel with the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship, but with slightly different teams. As

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

had qualified for the ICC

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

Championship ranking qualification process, they were replaced by

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

in the limited over event; however they continued to play the four-day event. As a result of changes to the structure of

international cricket International cricket matches are played between teams representing their nations, normally organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches. Most games are played ...

announced by the ICC in January 2014, the winner of the 2015-17 Intercontinental Cup (and following editions of the tournament) were originally scheduled to play four five-day matches against the bottom ranked

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

nation (two home and two away matches), an event known as the 2018 ICC Test Challenge. Should the winner of the Intercontinental Cup go on to win the ICC Test Challenge, they would have become the 11th Test nation. However, in February 2017 following an ICC Board meeting, changes were agreed in principle to expand the number of Test nations to twelve. Both Afghanistan and Ireland were likely to be granted Test status before the proposed 2018 ICC Test Challenge. In June 2017, the ICC awarded both Afghanistan and Ireland Full Member status, making them eligible to play Test match cricket. As a result, the planned Test Challenge was scrapped. Afghanistan won the competition, after beating the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

by 10 wickets in their final game. They finished with 121 points, with Ireland as runners-up on 109 points.

Rashid Khan Rashid Khan Arman ( ps, ; born 20 September 1998) is an Afghan international cricketer and a former captain of the national team. In franchise leagues, he plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide Strikers in Austra ...

, man of the match for Afghanistan in the final fixture, said that winning the Intercontinental Cup was "good preparation for Test cricket for us".

Teams

The following are the 8 teams participating in the competition based on the results from 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship,

2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2015 World Cup. The top two teams qualified for the World Cup, joining Ireland and for the first time Af ...

and the

2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two The 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was a cricket divisional tournament organised by the International Cricket Council. It formed part of the ICC World Cricket League and a qualification pathway for the ICC World Cup 2019. The tourna ...

. * (1st in 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship) * (2nd in 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship) * (1st in

) * (2nd in

) * (3rd in

) * (4th in

) * (1st in

) * (2nd in

)

Preparations

Of the eight teams participating in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup, only Papua New Guinea has never played a first-class match before.Meet Hanuabada's latest flagbearer - the rise of PNG's Lega Siaka by Tim Wigmore
/ref> Afghanistan, Ireland, Namibia, Scotland, The Netherlands and the UAE had all appeared before in the previous Intercontinental Cup of 2011-2013, while Hong Kong had last appeared in the 2005 Intercontinental Cup and last played in an international multi-day cricket tournament in late 2006 at the 2006/07

ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament The ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament was a three-day cricket tournament run by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), contested between its top-ranking ICC associate members. It was played three times between 2004 and 2006, and then replaced by the ...

. Though never having played a first-class match, Papua New Guinea (PNG) have played two-day cricket in the South Australian Premier League in 2013 and 2014. Though finishing at the bottom of the league in both seasons, the experience seems to have hardened the team as they convincingly beat Hong Kong in a three-day match in Australia and one of PNG's openers admitted that participation in the league had been critical to exposing the players to multi-day cricket.

Fixtures

The breakdown of fixtures is as follows:

Points table

*Win – 14 points *Ti.e. – 7 points *Draw (if more than 10 hours of play lost) – 7 points (otherwise 3 points) *Abandoned without a ball bowled – 10 points *First Innings lead (independent of final result) – 6 points (3 points each in case of a first innings tie)

Matches

Round 1

The fixtures for round one were announced on 5 May 2015. ---- ---- ----

Round 2

The fixtures for round two were announced in August 2015. ---- ---- ----

Round 3

The fixtures for round three were announced in December 2015. ---- ---- ----

Round 4

The fixtures for round four were announced in April 2016. ---- ---- ----

Round 5

The fixture between Afghanistan and Ireland was announced by

Cricket Ireland Cricket Ireland, officially the Irish Cricket Union, is the national governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national men's and women's cricket teams. It also org ...

in July 2016. The fixture between Hong Kong and the Netherlands was announced by the

Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond The Royal Dutch Cricket Association (Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond, KNCB) is the governing body of cricket in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was formed in 1890 and received a Royal charter in 1958. The KNCB is responsible for the ...

in December 2016.

Cricket Scotland Cricket Scotland, formerly known as the Scottish Cricket Union, is the Sport governing body, governing body of the sport of cricket in Scotland. The body is based at the National Cricket Academy, Edinburgh. The SCU was formed in 1908, but unde ...

confirmed the venue for their fixture in February 2017. ---- ---- ----

Round 6

---- ---- ----

Round 7

The ICC announced the dates and venues for the final round of fixtures on 23 October 2017. ---- ---- ----

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-17 ICC Intercontinental Cup ICC Intercontinental Cup International cricket competitions in 2015 International cricket competitions in 2015–16 International cricket competitions in 2016 International cricket competitions in 2016–17 International cricket competitions in 2017 International cricket competitions in 2017–18