England overlook Butcher for Champions Trophy

England's selectors today announced their preliminary squad of 30 for this year's ICC Champions Trophy in September. Despite the disappointing results in this year's NatWest Series, in which England failed to reach the final, every member of that squad made the cut, as well as ten uncapped players.

The Warwickshire pair of Ian Bell and Mark Wagh were included, along with Richard Dawson, the Yorkshire offspinner who has played seven Tests. Others included last winter's England A team captain Alex Gidman and Jonathan Lewis from Gloucestershire, Graham Napier, the Essex allrounder, and Chris Tremlett, the tall fast bowler from Hampshire. Glamorgan had three representatives in Michael Powell (who was a late call-up to the NatWest Series but didn't actually play), Simon Jones and Alex Wharf. The squad will be trimmed down to 14 by August 10.

"Our ultimate goal as selectors is to build a side for the World Cup in 2007," said David Graveney, England's chairman of selectors. "The make-up of this squad gives a good indication as to the type of team we are looking to develop and the particular roles we are looking to fill within it."

He continued: "There are ten players in this provisional squad who have not yet played one-day international cricket, and we will continue to experiment with new players as we seek the right blend between experience and youth ahead of 2007."

Graveney also added that the selectors had thought of picking Mark Butcher, who has played 69 Tests but not a single one-day international, and said that although he didn't make the squad, he was still in their thoughts: "Mark previously intimated that he did not want to play both forms of international cricket because he was concerned about the impact on his fitness," Graveney said. "However, he has recently indicated that he would now like to be considered for our one-day side, and as the season progresses we will be watching with interest his performances for Surrey in the Twenty20 Cup and the National League."

The Champions Trophy starts on Sept 10 - England take on Zimbabwe at Edgbaston while New Zealand play the United States at The Oval - with the final, also at The Oval, on Sept 25.

England provisional squad for Champions Trophy
Michael Vaughan (capt), Kabir Ali, James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ian Blackwell, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Richard Dawson, Andrew Flintoff, Alex Gidman, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, Geraint Jones (wk), Simon Jones, Robert Key, James Kirtley, Jonathan Lewis, Anthony McGrath, Sajid Mahmood, Graham Napier, Michael Powell, Chris Read (wk), Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Wagh, Alex Wharf.