The shock recall of Tom Moody, and a selection victory for Shane Warne over Stuart MacGill, are the main features of the announcement today of the final fifteen-man Australian squad for the World Cup.

Moody, who has not played for Australia since the Commonwealth Games in September, was missing from the 19-man provisional squad announced a few weeks ago, and was thought to be at the end of his international career. He missed the entire international season in Australia after suffering a knee injury early in the Sheffield Shield season, and then being unable to regain his place in the side.

Moody is one of two members of the current Australian squad who were in the victorious 1987 World Cup party (Steve Waugh being the other), although he did not play in the final. The selection announcement makes for a double celebration for the 33 year-old Western Australian captain, after yesterday lifting the Sheffield Shield for the second year running. Worcestershire, however, will be without his services in the coming county season until Australia's World Cup committments are finished.

Missing from the nineteen-man provisional squad are Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Stuart Law, Stuart MacGill and Brad Young. With two leg-spinners in a 15-man ODI squad seen as an unaffordable luxury, MacGill, despite his outstanding record in Mercantile Mutual Cup play for New South Wales, gave way to the current national vice-captain. Ian Harvey and Stuart Law will be free to play for their respective counties - Gloucestershire and Essex - for the whole English county year.

Left-arm spinner Brad Young's omission ends an unfortunate season. Hat-trick hero from the Commonwealth Games semi-final against New Zealand last September, Young was injured when he crashed into a boundary fence while fielding in his first Carlton & United One-Day Series match of the season, before getting the chance to bowl. He hasn't been back in Australian colours since.

Before the World Cup, the same squad will play the seven-match one-day series in the West Indies beginning April 11. Nine of the squad currently in the Caribbean will fly home at the end of the Fourth Test - Slater, Elliott, Langer, Blewett, Healy, Gillespie, Miller, MacGill, and the especially unfortunate Andy Bichel. The Queensland paceman has played just one match on tour, bowling 17 overs and taking one wicket - that of Stuart Williams back on February 22. While Bichel has been doing whatever a 15th man does on tour, his state team lost the Sheffield Shield final yesterday by an innings and 31 runs.

The Australian squad for the World Cup is:

Steve Waugh (capt), Shane Warne (vc), Michael Bevan, Adam Dale, Damien Fleming, Adam Gilchrist, Brendon Julian, Shane Lee, Darren Lehmann, Glenn McGrath, Damien Martyn, Tom Moody, Ricky Ponting, Paul Reiffel, Mark Waugh.