Dublin: All four Associate nations, who recently impressed at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, will be in action from Tuesday in their opening round matches of the four-day first-class Intercontinental Cup 2015-17, which is a pathway for Test cricket.
Ireland will face the UAE at Malahide and Scotland will welcome Afghanistan to Stirling.
The side that wins the eight-team round-robin competition will play the 10th-ranked side on the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings (as at 31 December 2017) in the four-match ICC Test Challenge during 2018. If the Associate Member win the series, to be played on a home and away basis, then they will become the 11th Test nation.
This is reigning champion Ireland’s seventh appearance in the competition, which also features former winners Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Namibia, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea (PNG), 2004 champion Scotland and the UAE.
Tuesday’s encounter will also mark John Bracewell’s first competitive match in charge of the Ireland side. Looking ahead to the match, the former New Zealand Test off-spinner said: “It’s a hugely important game for us as we take the first step on our ambition to become a Test playing nation. That opportunity was one of the primary reasons I took on the job of Ireland Head Coach. It’s incredibly exciting for the team and the country as we look to write new chapters in our cricketing history.
“The team has a fantastic record in the competition having won it four times and we’d like nothing better than to make it five wins. We’ve selected a very strong squad for the game and are at full strength. We’ve got a lot of experienced players in our ranks who’ve played a lot of multi-day cricket.
“It’s nice that my first game in charge will be at home and hopefully the crowd at Malahide will come out and support us this week. It’s obviously a huge boost for us to be playing UAE in home conditions and hopefully we’ll get our campaign off to a winning start against a dangerous UAE side.”
UAE coach Aaqib Javed, who won the ICC Cricket World Cup 1992 with Pakistan and then masterminded his side’s qualification to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, said: “Our team are really excited to start the first round of the Intercontinental Cup in Ireland.
“The prospect for the eventual winner of playing Test cricket ensures the pathway for Associate teams to take a seat at the ‘top table’ of cricket is now well and truly established. That long term goal is in everyone’s mind, our job will be to focus on winning session by session, game by game, it goes without saying the team that does that best will win.
“In its conditions, Ireland will, of course, provide a stern test for us. I’m sure they will be feeling confident, we’ll certainly need to be at the top of our game in all three disciplines to beat them.”
Talking about the composition of his side, Javed said: “We’ve made a few changes to the side that played in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year. We welcome back experienced batsman Saqib Ali, and spin bowlers Ahmed Raza and Fayaaz Ahmad, each of them has experienced success in the longer form of the game. Chirag Suri is a young batter whose domestic performances this year have been very strong while Asif Iqbal has been selected due to his strong performances in domestic cricket. Mohammad Tauqir has been retained as captain and he’ll be supported by a nucleus of highly experience players around him.”
Scotland and Afghanistan, meanwhile, have met three times in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, with Afghanistan winning all three matches. This is Scotland’s seventh appearance in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, which they won in 2004 and were runner up in 2009-10. In all, the Scots have played 27 matches; winning 11, losing six and drawing 10.
For Afghanistan, this will be their third appearance in a competition they won back in 2009-10 and was runner-up to Ireland last time out in 2011-13. Afghanistan has played 15 matches, winning 11, losing just one and drawing three.
