ICC World Cup 2011 Australia initial 30-man squad for next year's World Cup

"Australia is the reigning world champion and also holds the ICC Champions Trophy in the 50-over game. We've selected an initial squad with conditions in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in mind and expect this group to be equal to the challenge ahead."

Squad...

Ricky Ponting

Michael Clarke 

Doug Bollinger 

Dan Christian 

Xavier Doherty 

Callum Ferguson 

Brad Haddin 

Ryan Harris 

John Hastings 

Nathan Hauritz 

Brad Hodge 

James Hopes 

David Hussey 

Michael Hussey

Mitchell Johnson 

Brett Lee 

Shaun Marsh 

Andrew McDonald

Clint McKay 

Steve O'Keefe 

Tim Paine 

James Pattinson

Peter Siddle 

Steve Smith 

Mitchell Starc 

Shaun Tait 

Adam Voges 

David Warner 

Shane Watson

Cameron White

The squad will be pruned to 15 by January 19, giving the selectors just one ODI against England to answer any remaining questions they have about their players.

Lee has a strong chance of being part of the tournament, which starts in February, as he has 15 Ryobi Cup wickets at 21.73 this summer, while Hodge is the form batsman in the competition with three hundreds from seven games.

2011 ICC Cricket World Cup warm-up fixture schedule is revealed

The 14 warm-up matches will be played across the three host countries from 12 to 18 February 2011 with Bengaluru, Chennai, Chittagong, Colombo, Dhaka, Nagpur and Pallekele acting as host cities.

Each of the 14 competing sides will play two warm-up matches with four-time and reigning world champion Australia taking on India and South Africa on 13 and 15 February in Bangalore.

The following is the schedule of warm-up matches (in line with previous ICC events none of these matches will carry official ODI status):

Date                                        Fixture                                                    Venue

Sat, 12 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM West Indies v Kenya                              Colombo

Sat, 12 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM Sri Lanka v the Netherlands                  Pallekele

Sat, 12 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM New Zealand v Ireland                         Nagpur

Sat, 12 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM Zimbabwe v South Africa                   Chennai

Sat, 12 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM Bangladesh v Canada                        Chittagong

Sun, 13 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM India v Australia                                  Bangalore
Tue, 15 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM Ireland v Zimbabwe                              Nagpur

Tue, 15 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM Kenya v the Netherlands                      Pallekele

Tue, 15 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM Australia v South Africa                     Bangalore

Tue, 15 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM Bangladesh v Pakistan                      Dhaka

Wed, 16 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM Sri Lanka v West Indies                     Colombo

Wed, 16 Feb, 2011 9:30 AM England v Canada                              Dhaka

Wed, 16 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM India v New Zealand                         Chennai

Fri, 18 Feb, 2011 14:30 PM England v Pakistan                              Dhaka

New format hurts fringe players: Ponting

Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting says he's concerned the new domestic one-day format will hamper the World Cup preparations of fringe players.

Cricket Australia recently announced domestic one-dayers will now be split into two innings of 20 and 25 overs, in a break from the single innings 50-over format.

Ponting said he was concerned that the new format would limit the preparation for some of the players currently outside the national team ahead of the World Cup, which begins in February in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"We need to be playing as much 50 over cricket as we can with the World Cup just around the corner," he told reporters in Hobart on Saturday.

"It'll be OK for the guys that are in the national side, we'll probably play another 12 or 13 one-dayers before the one-day World Cup comes around.

"They guys on the fringe that are playing domestic cricket won't play any 50 over games really until that World Cup. Probably for the young spinners around Australia in particular, they're going to find it difficult this summer."

"The players probably felt that they didn't have the input that they probably would have liked to have had," he said.

"I know there's been a lot of speculation about how it's going to be played, but it's up to the players now to play it as well as they can and make it a good spectacle."

Ponting said he would likely play two Sheffield Shield games for Tasmania this summer, but would not play any domestic one-day matches.