UAE goes head-to-head with Bermuda in ICC Intercontinental Cup with one eye on ICC WCL division 2

United Arab Emirates (UAE) goes head-to-head with Bermuda in the ICC Intercontinental Cup in Abu Dhabi from Thursday with one eye on this month’s ICC World Cricket League division 2

Besides UAE, Argentina, Uganda, Denmark, Oman and Namibia will take part in the WCL Div.2 that will be staged in Windhoek, Namibia from 24 November to 1 December.

While the bottom two teams from the Windhoek event will be relegated to WCL Div.3, the top four teams will qualify for the ICC World Cup Qualifier (formerly ICC Trophy) in UAE in April 2009 where they will be joined by Kenya, Scotland, the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland and Bermuda.

The leading teams from the ICC World Cup Qualifier will go through to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 to be staged in the Asian subcontinent.

Newly-appointed UAE captain Saqib Ali says his team has three weeks tough ahead of it. “Both the events are extremely important for our development and growth as a cricketing nation but if I have to pick the most important one, I will go for WCL Div.2 because it gives us an opportunity to inch closer to our dreams of playing in the ICC Cricket World Cup,” said Ali who has played five first-class matches but is yet to make an ODI debut.

The only time the UAE played in the ICC Cricket World Cup was in 1996, when it was staged in the Asian subcontinent.

“But while we keep an eye on WCL Div.2, we are aware of the significance of ICC Intercontinental Cup and are concentrating and focusing on the match against Bermuda as hard as any other international match.

“It will not only give us an opportunity to get back in contention for a place in the final, it will give us the much-needed practice ahead of the Namibian tour.

“The boys have been playing club cricket but there is no replacement for international cricket. All of us want to make the best use of the Bermuda match,” said 29-year-old Ali.

Ali was wary of the fact that Bermuda was struggling in the competition and had lost all three games, including two by an innings and the other by eight wickets against Kenya earlier this week. “Obviously it goes to our advantage that we will be playing against a team which is low in confidence after a series of big defeats,” he said.

“But that doesn’t mean we start under-estimating them. We will have to respect them and play as hard as possible. Complacency can be our biggest enemy and we have to avoid that situation.”

It will be UAE’s third match in the ICC Intercontinental Cup. Only 46 overs were possible in its opener against Scotland at Ayr while it lost by an innings and 228 runs to Canada in Toronto.

Ali admitted his team had learnt from the Canadian tour. “We lost badly in Canada because we had traveled to Toronto with almost no practice and to compound our problems we played in alien conditions where the ball seamed and swung.

“However, Abu Dhabi is our home ground and the conditions are not new to us. We have played a lot of cricket here and I am sure we will be able to utilize the home advantage.

“The wicket basically suits the batsmen more than the bowlers but there is enough for the bowlers if they bend their backs or stick of basics.

“However, the team that fields well will have an advantage because we have to hold every catch and convert half-chances when you playing in conditions that are more suited to batsmen,” he added.

It will be Saqib Ali’s debut as UAE captain and the middle-order batsman confirmed he is looking forward to the new challenge. “It’s a big honour to lead your country in an ICC tournament and I look forward to this new role. I thank all those who trusted in my abilities and I hope to justify their decision.”

Bermuda is all but out of the finals race, trailing at the bottom of the points table following three successive defeats. However, there were still positives from the most recent game against Kenya – the superb batting performance of David Hemp who scored 97 and 68 not out, and good bowling by fast bowler Kevin Hurdle (4-98) and left-arm spinner Dwayne Leverock (4-113).

The umpires for the match will be Billy Doctrove from the West Indies, of the Emirates Elite Panel, and Buddhi Pradhan from Nepal, of the ICC Associates and Affiliates Umpires International Panel.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members’ cricket schedule.

Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has 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.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006/07 event.

The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.

UAE squad: Saqib Ali (captain), Javed Ismail, Abdul Rehman, Ahmed Raza, Alawi Shukri, Arshad Ali, Gayan Silva, Irfan Ahmed, Naeemuddin Aslam, Owais Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Shadeep Silva, Qassim Zubair, Kashif Khan.

Bermuda squad: Irving Romaine (captain), David Hemp, Dwayne Leverock, Lionel Cann, Jekon Edness, Stephen Outerbridge, James Celestine, Kevin Hurdle, Rodney Trott, Malachi Jones, Tamauri Tucker, Jeneiro Tucker, Kyle Hodsoll, Azeem Pitcher, Kian Butterfield.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Buddhi Pradhan

Points Table (as at 6 November)

WO - outright win - 14 pts WI - lead on first innings (also retained if outright loss) -6 pts LI - behind on first innings - 0 pts LO - outright loss - 0 pts
TO - outright tie - 7 pts each
TI - tie first innings - 3 pts each Abandoned - 10 pts eachFor full scorecards from all ICC Intercontinental Cup matches to date and information on the competition go to:http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com/scorecards/intercontinental-cup-schedule.html

Note to editors:
The ICC Media & Communications Department has been producing various articles, reports and scorecards relating to the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08. To assist you with planning, the following is a provisional schedule of information that will continue to be sent out over the next few weeks of the competition. Previews and round-ups will be in the region of 500 words long while reports will be approximately 300 words long and will include full scorecards where possible. Unlike previews and round-ups, reports and scorecards will not be sent out on our email list but will be available on the ICC website and are free for editorial use. It is hoped photographs will also be available. Match reports and scorecards will be posted on the website as soon as possible after the close of play, a time that will naturally depend on several factors, not least venue location, match situation and weather.

Previously issued releases:

25 June – interviews with captains, announcement of squads and preview for Scotland v UAE match 26 June – interviews with captains, announcement of squads and preview for Canada v Netherlands27 June – match report/scorecard day one Scot v UAE
28 June – match reports/scorecard day one Can v Neth, day two Scot v UAE
29 June – match reports/scorecard day two and day three
30 June – match reports/scorecard day three and day four (round-up)
1 July – match report/scorecard day four Can v Neth (round-up)

4 July – interviews with key players from first games, announcement of squads and preview for Canada v UAE match6 July – match report/scorecard from day one
7 July – match report/scorecard from day two
8 July – match report/scorecard from day three
9 July – match round-up

31 July – interviews with key players from first games, announcement of squads and preview for Scotland v Netherlands match
2 Aug – match report/scorecard day one
3 Aug – match report/scorecard day two
4 Aug – match report/scorecard day three
5 Aug – match round-up

7 Aug – preview of Ireland v Scotland match at Stormont
9 Aug – match report/scorecard day one
10 Aug – match report/scorecard day two
11 Aug – match report/scorecard day three
12 Aug – match report/scorecard day four (round-up)

11 Aug – interviews with key players, announcement of squads and preview for Netherlands v Bermuda match
13 Aug – match report/scorecard day one
14 Aug – match report/scorecard day two
15 Aug – match report/scorecard day three
16 Aug – match round-up

21 Aug – interviews with key players, announcement of squads and preview for Ireland v Bermuda match
23 Aug – match report/scorecard day one
24 Aug – match report/scorecard day two
25 Aug – match report/scorecard day three
26 Aug – match round-up

10 Oct – interviews with key players, announcement of squads and preview of Canada v Kenya match
12 Oct – match report/scorecard day one
13 Oct – match report/scorecard day two
14 Oct – match report/scorecard day three
15 Oct – match round-up

24 Oct – announcement of squads and preview of Namibia v Canada match
25 Oct – match report/scorecard day one
26 Oct – match report/scorecard day two
27 Oct – match report/scorecard day three
28 Oct – match report/scorecard day four
29 Oct – match round-up

30 Oct – announcement of squads and preview of Kenya v Bermuda match1 Nov – match report/scorecard day one
2 Nov – match report/scorecard day two
3 Nov – match report/scorecard day three
4 Nov – match report/scorecard day four
5 Nov – match round-up

6 Nov – announcement of squads and preview of UAE v Bermuda match8 Nov – match report/scorecard day one
9 Nov – match report/scorecard day two
10 Nov – match report/scorecard day three
11 Nov – match report/scorecard day four/round-up