2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup The inaugural ICC Intercontinental Cup was completed on 22 November 2004 when Scotland won the title in
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Scotland beat Canada by an innings and 84 runs in the final. The competition included 12 teams, divided by geographical region into four groups of three. Each team played the other two teams in its group once each. The top team in each group then progresses to the semi-finals, and the winners of those to the final. In order to encourage competitive play and avoid deadlocks, a point system including bonus points was used.
2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup Hong Kong came in to replace Malaysia, and the
Cayman Islands replaced the United States who were ejected from the competition by the ICC because of then ongoing political problems within cricket in the US. The points system was also modified so that teams could score unlimited batting points in the first innings and a maximum of 4 points in the second innings. The tournament was won by
Ireland who defeated
Kenya in the final.
2006–2007 ICC Intercontinental Cup The tournament was cut from 12 to eight teams, with Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and Uganda losing the right to participate, while Namibia knocked out Nepal in a play off for the eighth place. The match length was extended from three to four days, and each team was scheduled to play at least three matches. The teams were divided into two groups of four, with each team playing the other once and the top two teams qualifying for the final, and the points system has also been changed: 14 points are now awarded for a win, and six for a first-innings lead. Due to preparations for the
2007 World Cup and the longer tournament, the final was played in May 2007, where Ireland defeated Canada to defend their title.
2007–2008 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2007–08 tournament was played as a single
round-robin league of eight teams, so that each team played seven matches. The teams ranked first and second at the end of the pool stage contested the final. Namibia topped the pool stage but faced a defeat in the final against Ireland in late October in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Ireland secured their third consecutive Intercontinental Cup victory by remaining unbeaten throughout the competition. They sealed the title by winning three successive crucial away matches in Africa, defeating Namibia twice and Kenya in between.
2009–10 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2009–10 tournament was expanded to two divisions and 11 teams. Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, Kenya, and Afghanistan played in the top division, joined by Zimbabwe A. Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Bermuda and Uganda played in the
Intercontinental Shield. Afghanistan won their first title, beating Scotland in the final.
2011–13 ICC Intercontinental Cup In December 2010, the ICC announced that the 2011–13 tournament would revert to the 8 team, single division format of the 2007–08 season and that the Intercontinental Shield would be scrapped. The sixth staging of the Cup ran from June 2011 to October 2013. and included the top six associate and affiliate teams with One Day International status (ICC World Cricket League Division 1); Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland. The remaining two places were allotted to UAE and Namibia who finished in the top two of the ICC Intercontinental Shield and ICC World Cricket League Division 2. Later the ICC Development Committee decided to select the 3rd and 4th placed teams from the
ICC World Cricket League Division 2 (Bermuda and Uganda) and two qualifiers to proceed from
WCL Division 3 (Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea) bringing the total to 12 teams. A
50-over tournament was run alongside the re-expanded Intercontinental Cup. However, with Ireland and Afghanistan gaining test status in June 2017 the Test challenge was not held.
Ireland,
Afghanistan,
Scotland,
United Arab Emirates,
Hong Kong,
PNG,
The Netherlands and
Namibia qualified based on the results from
2011–13 ICC World Cricket League Championship,
2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier and the
2015 ICC World Cricket League Division Two. It ran in parallel with the
2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship but with slightly different teams. As
Ireland and
Afghanistan had qualified for the ICC
One-Day International Championship ranking qualification process, they were replaced by
Kenya and
Nepal in the limited over event; however they continued to play the four-day event. Afghanistan won the tournament after defeating UAE during the final round. ==Team records==