Squads and officials released for Afghanistan v UAE.

ICC MEDIA RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dubai, 3 October 2011: Afghanistan will take on United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 5-8 October in the second-round fixture of the ICC Intercontinental Cup Sharjah. The home side, in this instance Afghanistan, which plays its home fixtures in the UAE, will be led by Nowroz Mangal, while UAE will be under the captaincy of Khurram Khan in this fixture that will complete the second round of the tournament.

Afghanistan and UAE are also scheduled to play two games as part of the Associate and Affiliate 50-over League on 10 and 12 October. ICC Regional Match Referee Graeme Le Brooy will be overseeing both the Intercontinental Cup fixture and the 50-over matches.

Squads and match officials for Afghanistan v UAE, Second Round Intercontinental Cup, 5 to 8 October, Sharjah

AFGHANISTAN (squad): Nowroz Mangal (captain), Mohammed Nabi, Mohammad Stanikzai, Mohameed Shahzad, Javid Ahmadi, Samiullah Shinwari, Karim Sadiq, Hamid Hassan, Mirwais Ashraf, Aftab Alam, Gulbadin Naib, Dollat Zadran, Izzatullah Dawlatzai, Amir Hamza Hotak

UAE (squad): Khurram Khan (captain), Arshad Ali, Swapnil Patil, Amjad Ali, Palekar Hamid, Vikrant Shetty, Amjad Javed, Fayyaz Ahmed, Ahmed Raza, Shadeep Silva, Shoiab Sarwar, Ramveer Rai, Abdul Rehman, Asadullah Shareef

Umpires: Buddhi Pradhan of the ICC Associate and Affiliate Umpires Panel and Ahsan Raza of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires

Match referee: Graeme Le Brooy

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception seven years ago. The ICC’s premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members’ cricket schedule. There will be a total of US$254,000 in prize money for the Associate and Affiliate teams taking part in the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-13 with US$100,000 for the winners and US$40,000 for the runners-up.

Teams finishing in third and fourth place with receive US$20,000 and US$10,000 respectively while an outright win by any team during the course of the round-robin stage will see it walk away with US$3,000 per match. Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event then evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams who do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.

This year’s format will include eight teams – Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia and United Arab Emirates.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in three events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider, Canada in the 2006-07 event, Namibia in 2007-08 while in 2009-10 Afghanistan won the competition.