The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today named a provisional list of 20 players who will be considered for the National Academy in Adelaide this winter.

Hugh Morris, ECB Performance Director, said, "At this stage of the season we wanted to concentrate our minds on the kind of players who might be invited to the National Academy this winter. Creating such a list allows us to concentrate our resources and to film, study and analyse these players in-depth, which will enable the NA Staff to create individual programmes for them.

"This is by no means an exclusive list and if other players perform well in the remainder of the season then they will also be considered for selection. The shortlist contains a number of players from the 2001/2programme. It is considered that these players would benefit from a further winter at the Academy."

The ECB National Academy squad will be announced with the England Senior Test Match and One-Day squads for the winter.

The National Academy will again be based in Adelaide for 2002-3. Current plans are for the players to spend approximately nine weeks in Adelaide from early October before returning home for three weeks over Christmas. A post Christmas playing programme is currently being finalised.

Provisional list of Academy players:

Kabir Ali (Worcestershire) Gareth Batty (Worcestershire) Ian Bell (Warwickshire) Ian Blackwell (Somerset) Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire) Matt Bulbeck (Somerset) Paul Franks (Nottinghamshire) Kyle Hogg (Lancashire) Simon Jones (Glamorgan) Ed Joyce (Middlesex) Michael Lumb (Yorkshire) Gordon Muchall (Durham) Monty Panesar (Northamptonshire) Chris Read (Nottinghamshire) Darren Stevens (Leicestershire) James Treadwell (Kent) Chris Tremlett (Hampshire) Jim Troughton (Warwickshire) Mark Wallace (Glamorgan) Matt Whiley (Leicestershire)

© ECB