The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

tournament organised by 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) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play

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 ...

matches over four days against teams of similar skill in a competition environment and prepare them for eventual promotion to

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

status. First run in 2004, two of the most successful teams in the history of the tournament,

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 ...

were promoted to Full Member and Test status, in 2017. In October 2018, the ICC issued a media release asking for an expression of interest from teams who have competed in previous editions of the tournament. However, since no further news regarding a new edition have emerged since then, the future of the tournament was put into doubt. In April 2021, the ICC looked at the possibility of multi-day matches between Associate Members with

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 ...

(ODI) status, and

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teams who are not part of the

ICC World Test Championship The ICC World Test Championship is a league competition for Test cricket run by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which started on 1 August 2019. It is intended to be the premier championship for Test cricket. It is in line with the ...

Tournament history

2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup

The inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup was completed on 22 November 2004 when Scotland won the title in

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

, United Arab Emirates. Scotland beat Canada by an innings and 84 runs in the final. The competition included 12 teams, divided by geographical region into four groups of three. Each team played the other two teams in its group once each. The top team in each group then progresses to the semi-finals, and the winners of those to the final. In order to encourage competitive play and avoid deadlocks, a point system including bonus points was used.

2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

came in to replace Malaysia, and the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

replaced the United States who were ejected from the competition by the ICC because of then ongoing political problems within cricket in the US. The points system was also modified so that teams could score unlimited batting points in the first innings and a maximum of 4 points in the second innings. The tournament was won by

who defeated

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

in the final.

2006–2007 ICC Intercontinental Cup

The tournament was cut from 12 to eight teams, with Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and Uganda losing the right to participate, while Namibia knocked out Nepal in a play off for the eighth place. The match length was extended from three to four days, and each team was scheduled to play at least three matches. The teams were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing the other once and the top two teams qualifying for the final, and the points system has also been changed: 14 points are now awarded for a win, and six for a first-innings lead. Due to preparations for the 2007 World Cup and the longer tournament, the final was played in May 2007, where Ireland defeated Canada to defend their title.

2007–2008 ICC Intercontinental Cup

The 2007–08 tournament was played as a single round-robin league of eight teams, so that each team played seven matches. The teams ranked first and second at the end of the pool stage contested the final. Namibia finished on top at the pool stage, but lost the final against second placed Ireland in late October in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Ireland thus completed a hat-trick of Intercontinental Cup victories, having been undefeated in the competition, and having won three consecutive make-or-break away fixtures in Africa (against Namibia, Kenya and Namibia again) to clinch the title.

2009–10 ICC Intercontinental Cup

The 2009–10 tournament was expanded to two divisions and 11 teams. Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, Kenya, and Afghanistan played in the top division, joined by Zimbabwe A. Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Bermuda and Uganda played in the Intercontinental Shield. Afghanistan won their first title, beating Scotland in the final.

2011–13 ICC Intercontinental Cup

In December 2010, the ICC announced that the 2011–13 tournament would revert to the 8 team, single division format of the 2007–08 season and that the Intercontinental Shield would be scrapped. The sixth staging of the Cup ran from June 2011 to October 2013. and included the top six associate and affiliate teams with One Day International status (ICC World Cricket League Division 1); Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland. The remaining two places were allotted to UAE and Namibia who finished in the top two of the ICC Intercontinental Shield and ICC World Cricket League Division 2. Later the ICC Development Committee decided to select the 3rd and 4th placed teams from the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 (Bermuda and Uganda) and two qualifiers to proceed from WCL Division 3 (Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea) bringing the total to 12 teams. A 50-over tournament was run alongside the re-expanded Intercontinental Cup. The final of the 2011-13 competition was held in December 2013 between Ireland and Afghanistan, with Ireland winning their 4th Intercontinental Cup title.

2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup

In the wake of changes announced by ICC following its revamp in January 2014 when India, Australia and England Cricket Boards gained more control it was declared that the next winner of the Intercontinental Cup would get an opportunity to play 4 tests (2 home and 2 away) against the bottom ranked test nation and if the associate nation wins that series they would then gain Test status until the next Intercontinental Cup. However, with Ireland and Afghanistan gaining test status in June 2017 the Test challenge was not held.

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to 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 ...

, PNG,

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

qualified based on the results from 2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship, 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier and the 2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two. It ran in parallel with the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship but with slightly different teams. As

and

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 Cup ...

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. Afghanistan won the tournament after defeating UAE during the final round.

Team records

;Overall Record

Teams' performances

An overview of the teams' performances in every Intercontinental Cup:

All time table

The abandoned match between Scotland and Kenya in 2008, the forfeited match between Zimbabwe and Scotland in 2010 and the abandoned match between Hong Kong and Scotland in 2016 are not included. Complete up to the end of 2017. ''Key:'' TP/TW=Tournaments participated/won, M=Matches played, W/L/D=wins/losses/draws, Win%=percentage of games won. ;Intercontinental Shield Record In 2009 a second competition, the Intercontinental Shield, was introduced for the four teams placing 7th through 10th in the 2009 World Cup Qualifier. The matches are also first-class and the rules and points system are the same as for the Intercontinental Cup. The current teams in the Intercontinental Shield are Bermuda, Namibia, Uganda and United Arab Emirates. In December 2010 after the end of the Intercontinental Shield the ICC announced that it would be scrapping the Shield competition and returning to the 8 team Intercontinental Cup format of the 2007–08 season. Complete up to the 2010 final between the UAE and Namibia. ''Key:'' TP/TW=Tournaments participated/won, M=Matches played, W/L/D=wins/losses/draws, Win%=percentage of games won, a draw counts as half of a win.

Records and statistics

Team records

;Highest totals Source
ESPNcricinfo
Last updated 3 June 2015. ;Lowest totals Source

Last updated 3 June 2015. ;Largest winning margins (by Innings) Source

Last updated 3 June 2015. ;Largest winning margins (by Runs) Source

Last updated 3 June 2015. ; Largest winning margins (by Wickets) Source

Last updated 22 March 2018.

Individual records

;Most runs Source

Last updated 27 October 2015. ;Highest scores Source

Last updated 3 June 2015. ;Highest partnerships Source

Last updated 22 March 2018. ;Most wickets Source

Last updated 3 June 2015. ;Best bowling figures Source

Last updated 3 June 2015.

References

External links

ICC Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Icc Intercontinental Cup Intercontinental Cup International cricket competitions First-class cricket competitions