Namibia and UAE join top six

The International Cricket Council's first-class tournament, the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-13 will feature eight teams during this edition are Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland and United Arab Emirates (UAE) when the tournament begins next month.

Namibia and UAE were selected by the ICC Development Committee to participate in the event having finished in the top four of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 2 tournament in April 2011.

The first round of fixtures begins in June with venues and exact dates for all the games to be finalized. The venues and dates of matches will be decided upon by the two participating nations within the window provided by the ICC, with all the information to be released in advance of each window.

The tournament is a longer competition than previous editions of the ICC Intercontinental Cup running over a period of 28 months.

The ICC Intercontinental Shield competition that ran alongside the ICC Intercontinental Cup last season, featuring sides from Namibia, UAE, Bermuda and Uganda, has been discontinued after an ICC Development Committee meeting in November 2010 elected to return the ICC Intercontinental Cup back to its 2007-2008 eight-team format.

The ICC Development Committee also resolved, after its recent meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, to commence a 50-over competition between the eight participating countries with two matches to be played alongside the ICC Intercontinental Cup tournament schedule.

The fixtures for the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-13 is as follows:

Round 1- Jun/Jul-11
Ireland v Namibia
Scotland v Netherlands
Kenya v UAE
Canada v Afghanistan
Round 2- Sep/Oct-11
Ireland v Canada
Namibia Scotland
Netherlands v Kenya
Afghanistan v UAE
Round 3 - Mar/Apr-12, 2012
Afghanistan v Netherlands
UAE v Scotland
Kenya v Ireland
Namibia v Canada
Round 4 - Jun/Jul-2012
Ireland v Afghanistan
Kenya v Namibia
Scotland v Canada
Netherlands v UAE
Round 5 - Mar/Apr-2013
Kenya v Canada
Namibia v Netherlands
UAE v Ireland
Afghanistan v Scotland
Round 6 - Jul/Aug-2013
Canada v UAE
Scotland v Kenya
Netherlands v Ireland
Namibia v Afghanistan
Round 7 - Sep/Oct-2013
Ireland v Scotland
Afghanistan v Kenya
Canada v Netherlands
UAE v Namibia