ICC Intercontinental Cup squads for finals announced

The four countries left in this year's ICC Intercontinental Cup, the first-class tournament for non Test-playing sides, have named their squads for finals week in Namibia.

None of the teams - Bermuda, Ireland, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - have reached the final before so there is certain to be a new name on the Cup to go alongside that of the winners of the inaugural event in 2004, Scotland.

However, before any of them can lift the silverware they face a punishing week of matches in Windhoek, Namibia starting with the semi-finals.

The draw, which took place at Lord's Cricket Ground in England in June 2005, has pitted Asian Group winners the UAE against the qualifier from the European section, Ireland, while African champions Kenya face the Americas qualifier, Bermuda.

Both semi-final matches will take place between 23 and 25 October with the winners, or in the case of a draw the side that gathers most points, progressing to the final, set for the Wanderers Club in Windhoek from 27 to 29 October.

The squads named by the four countries are as follows:

BERMUDA

1. Clay Smith (captain)
2. Janeiro Tucker
3. Saleem Mukuddem
4. Dwayne Leverock
5. Dean Minors
6. Ryan Steede
7. Irving Romaine
8. Kwame Tucker
9. Kevin Hurdle
10. Curtis Jackson
11. Lionel Cann
12. Hasan Durham
13. Kevin Tucker
Manager - Elvin James
Coach - Gus Logie
Physiotherapist - Daniel Morgan

IRELAND

1. Trent Johnston (captain)
2. Conor Armstrong
3. Andre Botha
4. Jeremy Bray
5. Peter Gillespie
5. Dominick Joyce
7. Kyle McCallan
8. Adrian McCoubrey
9. Paul Mooney
10. Eoin Morgan
11. Niall O'Brien
12. Greg Thompson
13. Andrew White
Manager - Roy Torrens
Coach - Adrian Birrell
Physiotherapist - Iain Knox

KENYA

1.Steve Tikolo (captain)
2.Thomas Odoyo
3.Kennedy Otieno
4.Maurice Ouma
5.Kalpesh Patel
6.Ragheb Aga
7.Lameck Onyango
8.Collins Obuya
9.Mohammed Sheikh
10.Peter Ongondo
11.Martin Suji
12.Hitesh Modi
13. Tony Suji
Manager - Davinder Bharij
Coach - Mudassar Nazar
Physio - Bernard Ondeng

UAE

1. Arshad Ali (captain)
2. Muhammad Taskeen
3. Imran Ali
4. Rameez Shahzad
5. Kashif Ahmed
6. Vairamoorthy Sockalingam
7. Sameer Zia
8. Ali Asad Abbas
9. Rizwan Ahmed
10. Fahad Alhashmi
11. Usman Saleem
12. Marlon Fernando
13. Fahad Usman
Manager / coach - Abdul Razzaq Abdulla Kazim
Physio - Sudhama alias Sudhaker Chitrala
Assistant - Shah Hussain

The purpose of the ICC Intercontinental Cup is to give Associate members greater exposure to the longer form of the game and hopefully improve their playing standards.

The format is intended to give batsmen the chance to learn how to build an innings and spend more time at the crease while, for bowlers, the longer game encourages them to get fitter and learn more skills as it requires them to dismiss players rather than simply restrict them from scoring.

When this year's tournament began twelve teams started out on the road to Namibia.

In the Africa group, Kenya faced Namibia, qualifiers for the 2003 World Cup, and Uganda, where cricket is one of the fastest growing sports.

The UAE came up against Nepal and Hong Kong in the Asia group while in Europe Ireland went head-to-head with Scotland and the Netherlands.

Finally, the Americas group saw Bermuda, which recently qualified for the ICC World Cup for the first time, pitted against Canada, qualifiers for two World Cups themselves, and the Cayman Islands, taking part in the tournament for the first time.

During the build-up to finals week the ICC's corporate affairs team will be focussing on each of the four semi-finalists in turn with a mix of features and information.