In an attempt to fulfil the chance of the associate nations to play test cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the dates for the first round of fixtures for the four-day first-class ICC Intercontinental Cup 2015-17.
The tournament will feature Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Scotland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The side winning the round-robin league will play the bottom-ranked test team in the ICC Test Challenge in 2018.
ICC chief executive David Richardson said that this tournament will serve as a platform for emerging nations to fulfil their dream of playing test cricket.
He added that this tournament would showcase the growing pool of talent within the associate nations.
Currently, there are only 10 teams featuring on the ICC Test rankings with Zimbabwe at the bottom.