Former England one-day captain Adam Hollioake has been named in England's provisional 30-man squad for next year's World Cup in South Africa. Hollioake, who took time out at the start of the 2002 season following the death of his brother Ben in a car crash in Australia, eventually enjoyed an impressive campaign with both bat and ball as he led Surrey to their third championship title in four years. He last played for England in the 1999 World Cup, when England crashed out after the first round, and is currently on standby in Australia in case of further injuries to the one-day squad.

Offspinner Jeremy Snape is also included despite being ruled out of the start of the VB Series. Perversely, however, his replacement Gareth Batty is not. It seems he's good enough for the VB XVI but not the World Cup XXX.

England, in common with all other 13 World Cup participants, have to trim the 30 down to a final squad of 15 by December 31.

However, one player who appears to be out of England's plans is Essex wicketkeeper James Foster. He was England's first choice on the 2002-03 tour of India and New Zealand but an injury opened the door for Alec Stewart to regain his place at the start of the last English season. And Foster appears to have lost his place as Stewart's back-up to Nottinghamshire's Chris Read, who was included in the provisional World Cup squad two years after his last one-day appearance.

Glamorgan captain and hard-hitting batsman Matthew Maynard has also been recalled after two years in the international wilderness.

England have also named five uncapped players in their squad - Lancashire pace bowlers Kyle Hogg and James Anderson, Yorkshire batsman Anthony McGrath, Leicestershire batsman Darren Stevens and Kent seamer Martin Saggers.

England provisional squad Nasser Hussain (Essex), Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Nick Knight (Warwickshire), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire), Owais Shah (Middlesex), Alec Stewart (Surrey, wkt), Ronnie Irani (Essex), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Craig White (Yorkshire), Ian Blackwell (Somerset), Jeremy Snape (Leicestershire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Andrew Caddick (Somerset), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), James Kirtley (Sussex), Robert Key (Kent), Darren Stevens (Leicestershire), Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire), Anthony McGrath (Yorkshire), Matthew Maynard (Glamorgan), Adam Hollioake (Surrey), Chris Read (Nottinghamshire, wkt), Richard Dawson (Yorkshire), Martin Saggers (Kent), Kyle Hogg (Lancashire), Kabir Ali (Worcestershire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Ryan Sidebottom (Yorkshire), James Anderson (Lancashire).

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