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Captain Brian Lara is among six West Indies Test players named in a World team to play against an Asian team in three, privately arranged limited-overs matches in North America early next month.

The International All-Star Cup, organised by the PostMedia Group (PMG) in the United States, is scheduled for the 3Com Stadium in San Francisco, Columbia Stadium in New York, and the Skydome in Toronto.

Previously announced selections of several leading Australian, English, Indian, Pakistan and New Zealand players have had to be adjusted because of official international commitments.

The West Indies players - Lara, Jimmy Adams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Courtney Walsh, Phil Simmons, Ridley Jacobs and Merv Dillon - do not have an international assignment until the three-way tournament in Singapore in early September.

PMG, which is run by expatriate Indians, initially said the Asian team would be captained by Mohammad Azharuddin. It had named Australian captain Steve Waugh to lead the World team.

Neither is available as the Australian, Indian and South African boards have refused to release any of their contracted or national players for the series because they are committed to international Tests and One-Day Internationals.

Recently retired Australian captain Mark Taylor is one of the new additions to the World team. The other Australians are off-spinner Gavin Robertson and Paul Reiffel, who announced his retirement from international cricket last week.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that all invited players were offered US$25 000 each to take part in the tournament.

The teams, as re-released by PMG:

Asia - Arjuna Ranatunga, Arvinda De Silva, Sanath Jayasurya, Chaminda Vaas, Pramodya Wickeramasinghe, Mahela Jayawardane (Sri Lanka), Navjot Singh Sidhu, Vinod Kambli, Maninder Singh, Vijay Yadav, Atul Wasan, Praveen Amre (India).

World - Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Courtney Walsh, Phil Simmons, Ridley Jacob, Merv Dillon, Shivnarine Chanderpau (West Indies), Gavin Robertson, Mark Taylor, Paul Reiffel (Australia), Andy Flower, Neil Johnson, Henry Olonga (Zimbabwe), Ravinder Shah (Kenya).