The ICC’s announcement that a new edition of the Intercontinental Cup will be played over the next two years will come as a considerable relief to supporters of Associate and Affiliate cricket, who have spent the past three months in a state of alarm at the ICC’s plans for the future of the international game.

That it should ever have been in doubt is a reflection of how badly the Full members have shaken the confidence of the ICC's other 95 members with their insistence on cutting the World Cup to ten participants and the apparent implication that Twenty20 cricket is all that the rest are good for.

But the fact remains that consistent exposure to the four-day game is a vital component in the development of the leading Associates and Affiliates, and of their talented young players, and as ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done likes to point out, the Intercontinental Cup offers great value for money.

It is also a good thing that the format for the 2011-12 competition will revert to a single, eight-team event.

The expedient of splitting the 2009-10 edition into a seven-team Cup and four-team Shield, was a less than happy one, adopted in order to accommodate the ICC’s plans for the rehabilitation of Zimbabwe and leading to the disgraceful decision to relegate the 2010 finalists, Namibia, to the lower Shield competition.

Once again, however, the ICC has adopted the strange measure of basing qualification in one form of the game on performances in another. It was that which led to Namibia, who had a poor World Cup qualifying tournament in 2009, being dropped from the four-day Intercontinental Cup, and this time their chances of returning will depend on how they do in next year’s World Cricket League Division 2 competition in Dubai.

It is very hard to see why that’s preferable to simply including Namibia and the UAE, the Intercontinental Shield finalists who last weekend produced such an enthralling four-day match. They both have good records in the longest form of the game, and for either of them to miss out because of a couple of indifferent one-day performances would add another to the ICC’s lengthening list of travesties.

Still, we should no doubt be grateful that they haven’t simply given the nod to China.

Another benefit of the continuation of the I Cup, though, is that for the top six, the countries with ODI status, it provides the opportunity for playing short one-day series as part of each tour, so this decision gives a measure of insurance for the 50-over game as well. While the ‘context’ – a favourite word in ICC circles these days – in which such matches would be played remains unclear, they, too, form a key element in the Associates’ development strategies, and must continue.

All of that having been said, it would be wrong to pretend that all is well with the High Performance Program.

The Intercontinental Cup’s great weakness is the inability of many of the Associates to put out their best side much of the time: between work and study commitments and, in some cases, the demands of the English counties, very few matches in the competition feature two teams which are the strongest possible.

The theory was that this would gradually be alleviated as the Associates moved toward semi-professionalism, but in several cases the absence of sponsorship, compounded by the depressed state of the US dollar and the ICC’s apparent inability to honour its projected increases in HPP funding, means that that project is making at best slow progress.

It’s hard to see what the answer to this problem might be, short of a substantially greater infusion of cash from Dubai.

But in some instances, there is undoubtedly a case for a more proactive, less ad hoc selection policy. The playing resources may be comparatively thin, but perhaps countries like Scotland and the Netherlands, and maybe Canada, need to be more single-minded and purposeful about using the Cup to bring on their most talented young players.

It was a great pleasure to see Matty Parker bowling his heart out in both innings of last weekend’s final, and he is a good example of a player who stands to benefit from everything the competition has to offer. He still has a long way to go before he becomes a genuinely first-class allrounder – and clearly needs to curb his aggression a little, even in the most trying of circumstances – but every national coach in the High Performance countries would give their eye teeth for two or three like him.

The HPP countries also need to do more to provide a domestic environment, both in coaching and in competition, which generates players like Parker. The fact that this year’s final was over in less than half its allocated time showed how few batsmen are capable of lasting for a session, let alone a day, and there aren’t many bowlers around who have developed the stamina of a Hamid Hassan. Young players need to be exposed to multi-day cricket long before they make their Intercontinental Cup debut, and far too little is being done in that direction anywhere in the Associate and Affiliate world.

But the Full members must also bear their share of responsibility. They could do a lot more, and not just by providing more cash.

The balance between Full member domestic commitments and the Intercontinental Cup needs to be changed, so that the default position is that a player like William Porterfield, Ryan ten Doeschate or Kyle Coetzer is always available for his country’s first-class matches. The thought that Parker’s I Cup appearances might soon be curtailed because he’s been snaffled by some English county might be encouraging for the player, but it would do little for the standing of the Cup, or for coach Peter Steindl’s attempts to build a stable, forward-looking squad.

The multi-day performances of the High Performance countries would be improved, too, by more exposure to games against domestic sides from the Full members. Namibia’s involvement in the South African three-day competition and Scotland’s brief flirtation with the DECB Second XI championship show the way forward, but there are precious few such opportunities.

There are, then, many issues to be faced as administrators, coaches and players start to look towards the start of the 2011 campaign. But at least we now know that there’ll be a campaign, and in the present climate we have to be grateful for small mercies.