Dubai, Feb 09, 2012: Early pace-setter and three-time former champion Ireland travels to Mombasa this week to take on Kenya in what will kick-off the third round of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-2013.
The four-day first-class fixture will be played from 12-15 February at the Mombasa Sports Club. Ireland leads the table with 40 points after securing maximum points from its matches against Namibia and Canada, which it won by five wickets and by an innings, respectively.
Kenya, in contrast, is sitting in sixth position with 16 points from two matches. While it made a disastrous start to the event by losing to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 266 runs in its backyard in Nairobi after taking a six-run first innings lead, its second game against the Netherlands at the Salland Cricket Club No 1 ground in Deventer was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
In another ICC Intercontinental Cup third round action from next Thursday at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah, second-placed United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host fifth-placed Scotland.
The four-dayer between Kenya and Ireland will be followed by two Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Championship One-day Internationals which will be played at the same venue on 18 and 20 February.
The Pepsi ICC WCL Championship, together with the ongoing global divisions of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL), is an extremely important event on the calendar of ICC Development Programme as it provides a dual pathway for all Associate and Affiliate Members to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be staged in Australia and New Zealand.
The top two teams from the WCL Championship will automatically join ICC’s 10 Full Members in the ICC CWC 2015, while the bottom six teams in the WCL Championship will receive a second qualifying opportunity when they will lock horns for the remaining two places in the ICC CWC 2015 by competing in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier (CWCQ) in early 2014.
Ireland will conclude its Kenya safari with three T20Is to be against played in Mombasa on 22, 23 and 24 February.
When Ireland will take the field in the first T20I on 22 Feb, it will become only the 11th side and first Associate Member to enter the Reliance ICC Twenty20 Rankings Championship table after completing the criterion of having played in eight or more T20I matches since August 2009.
Squads: ICC Intercontinental Cup
Ireland (from) – William Porterfield (captain), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Ed Joyce, Rory McCann, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Andrew White, Gary Wilson (wicketkeeper)
Kenya (from) – Collins Obuya (captain), Ragheb Aga, Tamnay Mishra, Rakep Patel, Irfan Karim, Duncan Allan, Morris Ouma, Hiren Varaiya, Nelson Odhiambo, Shem Obado, James Ngoche, Alfred Luseno, Elijah Otieno, Nehemiah Odhiambo
Scotland (from) – Gordon Drummond (captain), Ryan Flannigan, Matthew Parker, Alisdair Evans, Richard Berrington, Majid Haq, Craig Wallace, Simon Smith, Gordon Goudie, Preston Mommsen, Calum MacLeod, Safayaan Sharif, Ewan Chalmers, Frederick Coleman
UAE (from) – Khurram Khan (captain), Mohammad Touqir, Abdul Rehman, Ahmed Raza, Amjad Javed, Amjad Ali, Rohan Mustafa, Saqib Ali, Vikrant Shetty, Fayyaz Ahmed, Swapnil Patil, Asadullah Shareef, Arshad Ali, Irfan Ahmed Sajjad
ICC Pepsi WCL Championship
Ireland (from) – William Porterfield (captain), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Nigel Jones, Trent Johnston, Ed Joyce, Rory McCann, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Andrew White, Gary Wilson (wicketkeeper)
Kenya (from) – Collins Obuya (captain), Ragheb Aga, Tamnay Mishra, Rakep Patel, Alex Obanda, Duncan Allan, David Obuya, Hiren Varaiya, Nelson Odhiambo, Shem Obado, James Ngoche, Alfred Luseno, Elijah Otieno, Nehemiah Odhiambo
Forthcoming matches: ICC Intercontinental Cup
12-15 Feb – Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa (umpires: Russell Tiffin and David Odhiambo, match referee Dev Govindjee), 16-19 Feb – UAE v Scotland, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (umpires: Shahul Hameed and Sudhir Asnani, match referee Graeme La Brooy), 2-5 Apr – Afghanistan v Netherlands, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (match officials: to be announced in due course), 5-8 Apr – Nambia v Canada, Wanderers, Windhoek (match officials: to be announced in due course)
Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship
18 Feb – first ODI, Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa (umpires: Russell Tiffin and David Odhiambo, match referee Dev Govindjee), 20 Feb – second ODI, Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa (umpires: Russell Tiffin and Shaun George, match referee Dev Govindjee),
7 Mar – first one-day match, UAE v Scotland, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (umpires: Buddhi Pradhan and Joel Wilson, match referee Graeme La Brooy), 9 Mar – Second one-day match, UAE v Scotland, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (umpires: Buddhi Pradhan and Joel Wilson, match referee Graeme La Brooy),
29 Mar – first ODI, Afghanistan v Netherlands, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (match officials: to be announced in due course), 31 Mar – second ODI, Afghanistan v Netherlands, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah (match officials: to be announced in due course),
10 Apr – first match one-day match, Namibia v Canada, Wanderers, Windhoek (match officials: to be announced in due course), 12 Apr – second one-day match, Namibia v Canada, Wanderers, Windhoek (match officials: to be announced in due course)
Twenty20 Internationals
22 Feb – first T20I, Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa (umpires: Shaun George and David Odhiambo, match referee Dev Govindjee), 23 Feb – second T20I, Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa (umpires: Shaun George and David Odhiambo, match referee Dev Govindjee), 24 Feb – third T20I, Kenya v Ireland, Mombasa Sports Club (umpires: Shaun George and David Odhiambo, match referee Dev Govindjee), Mombasa.
ICC Intercontinental Cup
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.
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