Emerging Nations vie for place in ICC Champions Trophy 2004
The strongest nations in cricket outside full international level will be chasing the chance to take on the powers of the game when the ICC Six Nations Challenge kicks off this Sunday, 29 February, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The weeklong tournament will see Canada; Holland; and Namibia, who took part in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, take on Scotland; the UAE; and the USA for the right to play Australia and New Zealand in the first round of the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year.
Scotland captain, Craig Wright, believes that a win in the UAE would go a long way to erasing the memory of missing out on a place in the World Cup: ?We missed out on the World Cup last year which was really disappointing so this would be a great chance to get Scotland back on the international stage."
The tournament is a 50-over round robin format, with matches in both Sharjah and Dubai before the final round on Saturday 6 March. The opening round will pit Canada against tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates, whilst Holland shape up against Scotland and Namibia take on USA. Amongst other fixtures there will be a rematch of the ICC Trophy 2001 final between Holland and Namibia on Wednesday 3 March, and Scotland will have an opportunity to avenge its defeat to Canada in the play-off final of the same tournament on Thursday 4 March.
The Six Nations Challenge is part of the ICC's overall High Performance programme for the leading Associate countries, and five of the six nations taking part in the tournament are beneficiaries of this dedicated programme that aims to narrow the gap between developing and test playing nations. Former South African coach, Bob Woolmer, is the ICC's High Performance Manger and believes that the standard of cricket outside the Test level is continuing to improve: ?We are seeing a high standard of cricket being played in a number of countries outside the elite level. The performances of the Associate level countries at the World Cup were highly encouraging and this tournament provides another platform on which they can show their progress as well as giving them the essential international competition needed to allow them to continue to improve."
This is the second ICC Six Nations Challenge, but the first featuring six ICC Associate Member countries. The inaugural tournament in Namibia was contested by Canada, Holland, Kenya, Namibia, Sri Lanka ?A' and Zimbabwe ?A', and was won by Kenya.
For a tournament schedule, click here, and for a full interview with Scotland captain Craig Wright, click here.