Chris Cairns to lead World XI

Chris Cairns, Inzamam-ul-Haq and R Sathish will captain the World XI, Pakistan XI and India XI respectively during the upcoming ICL 20s World Series to be held in Hyderabad. A prize money corpus of US$ 810,000 has been announced for the event.

The World XI boasts many of the ICL's big-name signings including Marvan Atapattu, Damien Martyn and Chris Harris. Ian Harvey, who was the Man of the Series in the inaugural edition, is also in the side as is his compatriot Michael Kasprowicz. The notable absentees from the squad are Shane Bond, one of the ICL's most high-profile recruits, Lance Klusener, the highest run-scorer in the recently concluded edition, and the big-hitting New Zealand pair, Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle. One of the weaknesses of the World XI is the lack of a specialist wicketkeeper, with only Lou Vincent as the keeper.

The India XI has several players who excelled over the last month, including Thiru Kumaran, G Vignesh and Abhishek Junjhunwala. Some of the experienced players like Hemang Badani and S Sriram, though, did not make the team.

The third side in the World Series, Pakistan XI, are essentially the Lahore Badshahs participating under a new name. The Badshahs players missing from this squad are Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed. The weakened bowling department gets a boost by the inclusion of Shabbir Ahmed, who represented the Chennai Superstars in the previous two international events.

The World Series is the first tournament of the unofficial league which doesn't feature city-based teams. It kicks off on Wednesday, in a format which will have each side taking on the other twice before the top two clash in the final on April 15.

Squads:
World XI: Chris Cairns (capt), Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Chandana, Matthew Elliot, Andrew Hall, Chris Harris, Ian Harvey, Michael Kasprowicz, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Daryl Tuffey, Johan van der Wath, Lou Vincent (wk)

Pakistan XI: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Arshad Khan, Hasan Raza, Humayun Farhat (wk), Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami, Naved-ul-Hasan, Naved Latif, Riaz Afridi, Shabbir Ahmed, Shahid Nazir, Taufeeq Umar

India XI: R Sathish, Abbas Ali, Love Ablish, Abu Nechim, Stuart Binny, Rohan Gavaskar, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Ibrahim Khaleel (wk), Thiru Kumaran, Ali Murtaza, Raviraj Patil, S Saravanan, TP Singh, TP Sudhindhra, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammed, G Vignesh