The International Cricket Council's first-class tournament, the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2011-13 will feature eight teams.

Among the eight teams, are the top six Associate and Affiliate teams with ODI status from 2009-2012 being automatically included, namely Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland.

Namibia and UAE were selected by the ICC Development Committee to participate in the event.

The ICC Intercontinental Shield competition that ran alongside the ICC Intercontinental Cup last season, featuring sides from Namibia, UAE, Bermuda and Uganda, has been discontinued after an ICC Development Committee meeting in November 2010 elected to return the ICC Intercontinental Cup back to its 2007-2008 eight-team format.

Also part of the programme for 2011-13 is a 50-over competition between the eight participating countries with two matches to be played alongside the ICC Intercontinental Cup tournament schedule.