Three-day warm-up fixture to be played at the ICC Global Cricket Academy from 7 - 9 January 2012
The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced its Combined Associate and Affiliate (AM) XI which will take on England in a three-day practice match at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai from 7 to 9 January 2012.
This match is part of England's preparation for the series against Pakistan which starts on 17 January with the first Test at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the Dubai Sports City.
Ireland's William Porterfield has been named captain of the side which is made up of players selected from ICC Intercontinental Cup, five of those countries, Ireland, Scotland, Namibia, UAE and Afghanistan are represented. While the Netherlands players were unavailable due to other commitments, players from Canada and Kenya failed to make the final squad.
The ICC Combined AM XI has been selected after a nominations process which involved coaches of the eight sides. The list was then shortlisted to 24 players before a 12-member squad was finalized by the eight ICC Intercontinental Cup coaches, the two ICC Global Cricket Academy coaches – Mudassar Nazar and Dayle Hadlee – and ICC's High Performance Manager Richard Done.
27-year-old Porterfield, who won the ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year award at the LG ICC Awards in Bengaluru in 2009, has played 60 first-class matches, 56 ODIs and 17 T20Is.
On his appointment as captain, Porterfield said: "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.
"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."
Combined AM XI - William Porterfield (captain, Ireland), Saqib Ali (UAE), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), George Dockrell (Ireland), Majid Haq (Scotland), Hamid Hassan (Afghanistan), Mohammed Nabi (Afghanistan), Boyd Rankin (Ireland), Mohammed Shahzad (Afghanistan), Paul Stirling (Ireland), Christi Viljoen (Namibia) and Craig Williams (Namibia)
Coaching staff
Mudassar Nazar (head coach), Dayle Hadlee (bowling coach)
