ICC International Cup
The ICC Intercontinental Cup is a cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council as part of its cricket development program. It is designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first-class cricket matches against teams of similar skill in a competition environment and prepare them for eventual promotion to Test cricket status. The ICC have announced that over the next two years the tournament will change, shrinking in size to eight teams who each play every other team, and the matches will also last four days instead of the three days that were played in 2005. There are also hopes to introduce a second division in the future.
2004
The inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup was completed on 22 November 2004 when Scotland won the title in Sharjah, 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:
Africa:
- Kenya
- Namibia
- Uganda
Americas:
- Bermuda
- Canada
- United States
Asia:
- Malaysia
- Nepal
- United Arab Emirates
Europe:
- Holland
- Ireland
- Scotland
Each team plays 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 is used:
- Win: 14 points
- Tie: 7 points
- Draw or loss: 0 points
- Batting bonus points: 0.5 points for each 25 runs scored in the first 90 overs of each innings, to a maximum of 6 points per innings.
- Bowling bonus points: 0.5 points per wicket taken in each innings.
Canada, Scotland, United Arab Emirates and Kenya qualified for the semi-finals in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.