The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first-class cricket matches over four days against teams of similar skill in a competition environment and prepare them for eventual promotion to Test cricket status. First run in 2004, two of the most successful teams in the history of the tournament, Ireland and Afghanistan were promoted to Full Member and Test status, in 2017. In October 2018, the ICC issued a media release asking for an expression of interest from teams who have competed in previous editions of the tournament. However, since no further news regarding a new edition have emerged since then, the future of the tournament was put into doubt. In April 2021, the ICC looked at the possibility of multi-day matches between Associate Members with One Day International (ODI) status, and Test teams who are not part of the ICC World Test Championship. Tournament history 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