Steve Waugh's hopes of appearing in a fifth successive World Cup looked to be dead in the water when he was left out of a preliminary 30-man squad chosen by the selectors ahead of the final cut on Dec 31. Though the selectors indicated that those not in the list could still make it, the chances of Waugh fighting his way back were slim in the extreme. He might have led his team to an eighth successive Ashes victory over the weekend but Waugh, who was relieved of the one-day captaincy in February, is unlikely to get a fairytale swansong.

Every other member of the Ashes winning XI is part of the provisional squad, and Waugh's absence indicates that the selectors don't even consider him a decent wild-card choice. Three allrounders have been named - Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds and Ian Harvey - while Ryan Campbell, Western Australia's wicketkeeper-batsman, also finds a place.

"This is really the first phase in selecting the squad for the 2003 World Cup," said Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors. "There are a number of players we need to continue looking at over the coming month as we move to cut the squad by half. That will be a challenging task, because there are several players that could fill a variety of positions for us at the World Cup."

He added: "So far we have selected a healthy mix of players - batsmen, bowlers, allrounders and three wicketkeepers, which gives us a broad range to choose from when finalising our list."

The Australians will leave for the World Cup on Jan 29, giving themselves slightly less than a fortnight to acclimatise.

The selectors also named Justin Langer as captain of Australia A, in preference to Jimmy Maher, for the one-day matches against England and Sri Lanka later this month. Langer led Australia A through a victorious tour of South Africa in September, and is one of those on the fringes of the one-day team.

Brad Hogg and Greg Blewett were also named, as was Michael Clarke, touted by most as the next great Australian batsman.

Australia A play an England XI in Sydney on Dec 8 and the Sri Lankans in Brisbane on Dec 14.

World Cup preliminary squad
Michael Bevan, Andrew Bichel, Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, Ryan Campbell, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Brad Haddin, Ian Harvey, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Hayden, Mark Higgs, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ashley Noffke, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Cameron White, Brad Williams, Damien Wright.

Australia A Justin Langer (capt), Jimmy Maher, Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Ryan Campbell (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Ashley Noffke, Andrew Symonds, Brad Williams.

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