 | | The International Cricket Council today announced the team of the tournament for the group stage of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10, the final of which takes place. |
1) Side features players from five teams; selection panel picks Ireland’s William Porterfield as captain 2) Preview of ICC Intercontinental Cup final available on SNTV Dubai, 1 December 2010: The International Cricket Council today announced the team of the tournament for the group stage of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10, the final of which takes place between Afghanistan and Scotland at Dubai Sports City International Stadium from tomorrow, 2 December to 6 December. The team was selected by a specially assembled panel of experts after the coaches and captains of each of the seven competing teams were asked to make their nominations. The players who made the team will be presented with an ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10 Team of the Tournament medal. Not surprisingly, five players in total from the two finalists (Scotland and Afghanistan) provide half of the team but altogether five countries are represented. Four of the team are from Afghanistan while Ireland has provided three members. In addition, there are two players from Kenya and one each from Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Scotland. Only performances in the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10 were considered and of the seven competing teams, just Canada is not represented in the team. “This was by no means an easy task this year with so many teams providing worthy candidates for the team of the tournament,” said ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done, who chaired the panel. “Once we received all the votes from the captains and coaches, the panel had the difficult task of making the final team selection. Afghanistan feature heavily in the side, unsurprisingly since they have had a good tournament so far. “Ireland’s William Porterfield is named as captain this year and I think he’d be leading an extremely strong side if this group of individuals had the chance to play together as a team. “This year’s I Cup and I Shield has been successful with teams performing strongly in the four-day format. This first class competition enables the top Associate and Affiliate teams to compete in the longer form of the game and all the sides at this level are continuing to improve,” added Done. The coaches and captains were asked to make the nominations from teams other than their own and they nominated players in the following categories: opening batsmen (two); top/middle-order batsmen (three); wicketkeeper (one); quick bowlers (three); spin bowlers (two) and one additional player from any category, who the coaches and captains felt was deserving of his place. To be nominated, players must have appeared in at least three out of his team’s six ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10 round-robin matches. The coaches and captains were also asked to nominate a captain from the players they picked. To assist the coaches and captains in their deliberations, they were all provided with full statistics and averages providing the leading performances from each of the 42 matches in the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2009-10 group stage. Once all the votes were collated the five-person panel made its selection. Team of the Tournament 2009-10 (in would-be batting order) William Porterfield (Ireland, captain) Noor Ali (Afghanistan) Steve Tikolo (Kenya) Vusi Sibanda (Zimbabwe XI) Andrew White (Ireland) Muhammad Shahzad (Afghanistan, wicketkeeper) Hamid Hassan (Afghanistan) Trent Johnston (Ireland) Nehemiah Odhiambo (Kenya) Mohammed Nabi (Afghanistan) Mohammed Haq (Scotland) 12th Man: Peter Borren (Netherlands) The selection panel consisted of: Richard Done (Chairman) Rod Lyall (Europe) Cassim Suliman (Africa) Buddhi Pradhan (Asia) Neil Speight (Americas) The media guide for the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the ICC Intercontinental Shield can be ”>viewed here: (ICC MEDIA RELEASE) |