Ignomy

1994 ICC Trophy

The ABN-AMRO 1994 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament that took place in Kenya in February/March 1994. It was the qualifying tournament for the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

First round

The first round took the form of a group stage. The twenty teams were split into four groups of five. The top two teams from each group went through to the second round, the third and fourth placed teams went through to the Plate competition, whilst the 5th placed teams went through to the Wooden Spoon competition.

Second stage

Wooden Spoon

The Wooden Spoon competition was a four team round robin tournament. It was won by West Africa with Gibraltar suffering the ignomy of the last place finish in the whole tournament.

Plate Competition

The eight teams in the plate competition were divided into two groups of four. It was originally intended that the winners of each group (Papua New Guinea and the USA) would play the plate final, but both those teams had booked their flights home, not expecting to qualify, so the final was played between Denmark and Namibia. Namibia won by 41 runs thanks to an innings of 106 from Gavin Murgatroyd.

Main tournament

The second stage for the main tournament also took the form of two groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group qualified for the semi finals.

Semi finals

The first semi final saw Kenya take on Bermuda. Kenya batted first and scored 318/5 from their 50 overs, Maurice Odumbe top scoring with an unbeaten 158. Clay Smith scored 108 in Bermuda's reply, but no one else passed fifty, and they could only score 254/9 from their 50 overs. In the second semi final, The Netherlands were dismissed for 194 by the UAE. They then took the top four UAE wickets quickly, but Mohammad Ishaq with 72, and Saleem Raza with 65 steered the UAE into the final.

Third place play off

The third place play off saw the Netherlands secure their place in the World Cup with a big win over Bermuda. Batting first, an unbeaten 121 from Nolan Clarke saw them to a total of 306/2 from their 50 overs. Bermuda were never in the hunt and were dismissed for just 203.

Final

The final was a close fought afair that went into the last over. Kenya batted first and made 281, Maurice Odumbe again top scoring with 86 as Kenya made 281/6. Tony Suji took 4 wickets in the UAE innings, but it wasn't enough to stop the UAE from reaching the target from the first ball of the final over.