Porterfield To Lead ICC Team Against England

Porterfield To Lead ICC Team Against England

William Porterfield will lead the ICC side in Dubai

©REUTERS / Action Images

Ireland skipper William Porterfield is to captain an International Cricket Council (ICC) Combined Associate and Affiliate XI against England in a three-day game in Dubai from 7th to 9th January.

The match, held at the ICC Global Academy in Dubai, will form part of England's preparations for a three-Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Porterfield will lead a side made up of players participating in the ICC Intercontinental Cup from Ireland, Scotland, Namibia, UAE and Afghanistan. Netherlands players will be unavailable due to other commitments and no players from Canada or Kenya made the squad.

Coaches of the eight sides formed a panel to select the 12-member squad along with two ICC Global Academy coaches Mudassar Nazar and Dayle Hadlee as well as ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done.

"It will be a great honour for me to lead out the Associate and Affiliate team against the number one team in the longer format of the game," Porterfield said.

"If you look through their squad they are full of world class cricketers and it will be a great test for us against whatever eleven they put out.  Another challenge we face is coming together as a group ourselves, we have played against each other a few times but we will have to gel pretty quickly in the few days’ preparation we have in order to put in a good performance. 

"As this is such a great chance for all the individuals to showcase their talent against the number one Test team in the world, I do not see this being an issue at all."

England Director of Cricket, Andy Flower added: "We are delighted to be playing a warm-up fixture against the ICC Combined AM XI in Dubai at the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy.

"I’m sure that the match will not only provide the England squad a challenging first warm-up ahead of the Pakistan series but it will also give the AM XI players, many of whom are part of the extremely successful Gatorade ICC High Performance Programme an opportunity to play a three-day fixture at the highest level. I am sure this match it will aid the current players to improve and provide a motivation for future players."

In addition to the match against the ICC Combined XI, England will also play a three-day game against a Pakistan Cricket Board XI as well as one-day game against England Lions on 10th February.

ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI: William Porterfield (captain, Ireland), Saqib Ali (UAE), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), George Dockrell (Ireland), Majid Haq (Scotland), Hamid Hassan, Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan),Boyd Rankin (Ireland), Mohammad Shahzad (Afghanistan), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Christi Viljoen (Namibia), Craig Williams (Namibia)

© Cricket World 2011