KOLKATA, Dec 18: Saurav Ganguly has been retained as captain of the Indian team for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

India’s selectors named a preliminary squad of 30 players for the tournament, which has to be pruned to 15 by Dec 31 according to International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations.

The list also includes Rohan Gavaskar, the son of legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, among the selections.

A host of pacemen and all-rounders were among those selected, including veteran Venkatesh Prasad, Tinu Yohannan, Ashish Nehra, J.P Yadav and Reetinder Sodhi, all of whom have represented India.

Among the uncapped players are Gavaskar, Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir and Mumbai paceman Avishkar Salvi.

India was the last team to announce their preliminary line-up.

Indian selectors also announced a squad of 14 players for their away series of seven one-dayers against New Zealand that starts on Dec 26.

The squad will be expanded to 16, but selectors wanted to leave their options open for the remaining two positions until after the second and final Test in Hamilton.

“The selectors want to see the performance of players in the Hamilton Test before deciding on the remaining two names,” said Indian cricket board secretary S.K. Nair after the selection committee met here.

The selectors decided to go with experience in naming paceman Javagal Srinath and leg-spinner Anil Kumble in the team for New Zealand and there were no surprises in store.

All 14 players named for New Zealand also figure in the World Cup squad.

Squad for New Zealand (two more to be named later): Saurav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Vangipurapu Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar.

World Cup probables: Saurav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Vangipurappu Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Tinu Yohannan, Rakesh Patel, Dinesh Mongia, Gautam Gambhir, Sarandeep Singh, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, Jai Prakash Yadav, L. Balaji, Reetinder Sodhi, Deep Dasgupta, Irfan Pathan, Rohan Gavaskar, Avishkar Salvi, Venkatesh Prasad, Sairaj Bahutule.—Reuters/AFP