Pakistan's World Cup squad

Pakistan left out veteran batsman Mohammad Yousuf from their final 15-man squad for next month's World Cup hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi will lead the team.

With Yousuf's exclusion the squad is largely inexperienced, with only seven players having featured in previous World Cups.

Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar are the only survivors of Pakistan's runners-up finish in the 1999 tournament.

Pakistan will be without key players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer who were all provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on charges of spot-fixing during team's tour to England last year.

A decision on their case is due on February 5 and the PCB last week said they can be included in the team if absolved.

Another player, Kamran Akmal, who was also under suspicion of match-fixing, was included after being reportedly cleared by the ICC, but all-rounder Shoaib Malik and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria failed to get clearance.

Pakistan, who won the World Cup title in 1992, are placed in Group A of the 14-team event to be played between February 19 to April 2. They open their campaign against Kenya at Hambantota on February 23.

Pakistan Squad: Shahid Afridi (C), Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Ahmed Shahzad

Jayasuriya, Vaas out of Sri Lanka's final squad for the World Cup

There was no place for sentiment in Sri Lanka's final team for the ICC World Cup Cricket 2011, with the national selection panel headed by former great Aravinda de Silva not selecting either Sanath Jayasuriya or Chaminda Vaas in the final fifteen.

Both Jayasuriya and Vaas had been team-mates of de Silva - with all three proving to be integral parts of the team that won the 1996 World Cup, which was the last one held in the subcontinent.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Vaas had been named in the provisional squad of 30 players, but their declining international powers meant that they couldn't find a place for themselves in the final squad, even though they had expressed their wish of playing a final World Cup before retiring. However, neither of them has featured in an ODI for Sri Lanka for over a year, and the chances of their both making the final squad were always slim.

Most of the squad that beat Australia in Australia 2-1 for a maiden ODI series triumph in the country has been retained. Among the surprise omissions was that of off-spinner Suraj Randiv. Randiv had given a good account of himself in his brief international career, alongwith proving to be a good fielder and decent batsman, but left-arm spinner Rangana Herath was preferred over him.

The absence of the veterans means Sri Lanka has only one player in their ranks who knows what it feels like to win a World Cup - world record holder Muttiah Muralitharan. Muralitharan had retired from Test cricket after the first Test against India with a fairytale finish getting to 800 wickets, but had said that he would be available for selection for the World Cup.

The team will be led by Kumar Sangakkara with Mahela Jayawardene being the vice-captain. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh host the 2011 World Cup, which will take place from February 19 to April 2.

Sri Lanka World Cup squad: Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), Mahela Jayawardene (vc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath.

ICC Cricket World Cup: Statistics and Records

• All-time World Cup Records
• 2011 World Cup Records
• 2007 World Cup Records
• 2003 World Cup Records
• 1999 World Cup Records
• 1996 World Cup Records

Top 10 Highest partnerships by runs

Partners	Runs	Wkt	Team	Place
SC Ganguly, R Dravid	318	2nd	India v Sri Lanka	Taunton
SR Tendulkar, SC Ganguly	244	2nd	India v Namibia	Pietermaritzburg
R Dravid, SR Tendulkar	237*	3rd	India v Kenya	Bristol
RT Ponting, DR Martyn	234*	3rd	Australia v India	Johannesburg
Kloppenburg, KJJ Noortwijk	228	2nd	Netherlands v Namibia	Bloemfontein
ME Waugh, SR Waugh	207	3rd	Australia v Kenya	Visakhapatnam
MJ Clarke, BJ Hodge	204	4th	Australia v Netherlands	Basseterre
SC Ganguly, V Sehwag	202	2nd	India v Bermuda	Port of Spain
CG Greenidge, HA Gomes	195*	3rd	West Indies v Zimbabwe	Worcester
Saeed Anwar, W. Wasti	194	1st	Pakistan v New Zealand	Manchester

ICC World Cup 2011 Warm-up Match Schedule

Date	Match Details	Time (IST)	Place
Feb 12 - Sat	West Indies v Kenya	09:30	Colombo
Feb 12 - Sat	Bangladesh v Canada	09:30	Chittagong
Feb 12 - Sat	Ireland v New Zealand	09:30	Nagpur
Feb 12 - Sat	Sri Lanka v Netherlands	09:30	Pallekele
Feb 12 - Sat	South Africa v Zimbabwe	14:30	Chennai
Feb 13 - Sun	India v Australia	14:30	Bengaluru
Feb 15 - Tue	Kenya v Netherlands	09:30	Pallekele
Feb 15 - Tue	Ireland v Zimbabwe	09:30	Nagpur
Feb 15 - Tue	Bangladesh v Pakistan	14:00	Dhaka
Feb 15 - Tue	Australia v South Africa	14:30	Bengaluru
Feb 16 - Wed	Canada v England	09:00	Dhaka
Feb 16 - Wed	Sri Lanka v West Indies	09:30	Colombo
Feb 16 - Wed	India v New Zealand	14:30	Chennai
Feb 18 - Fri	England v Pakistan	14:00	Dhaka

India name preliminary World Cup squad

Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane are included in the 30-man preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup, while there was no place for veteran Rahul Dravid and Irfan Pathan.

Yusuf Pathan made it to the list of probables following his good performances against New Zealand in the recently concluded ODI series. Also named in the squad was Parthiv Patel, who hit two half-centuries in the last two matches of the five-match ODI series against New Zealand.

The batting had the likely names of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. The ones who are likely to be challenging for a place in the final fifteen are Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahana, Saurabh Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.

The fast department had well-known seniors such as Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar, while Vinay Kumar also found a spot. The spinners were led by Harbhajan Singh and included Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin, while Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja made it as the bits-and-pieces men.

The side had four wicket-keepers with Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel and Wridhiman Saha joining captain MS Dhoni.

The final team is to be declared a month before the start of the World Cup as per the rules of the ICC and would be pruned to a squad of 15.

30-man list: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel , R Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar.

ICC: DRS to be used in all WC games

The International Cricket Council has said that it will use the Decision Review System (DRS) based on technology popularly known as ‘hawkeye’ for all the matches of the ICC cricket World Cup 2011.

The world's cricket governing body, however, said the hot-spot technology can be used as part of the DRS only in the two semi-finals and the final of the mega event to be held in the Indian sub-continent from Feb-April 2011.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni is known to be in favor of the hot-spot technology, which uses infrared sensors to show whether the ball has hit bat, pad or glove.

"All the matches of the ICC World Cup 2011 will have the DRS which will be based on virtual technology. It is just that the hot-spot technology will not be available for all the matches," an ICC representative told PTI.

"ICC is still talking to BBG Sports for four cameras to be used in two semi-finals and final to implement the hot-spot technology," she said, adding two cameras each could be used for each of the semi-finals.

The representative also said the ICC is yet to finalize the supplier for the virtual technology as it has asked for quotations from Virtual Eye and Hawkeye, the two firms that provide such services.

The ICC's clarification comes a day after one of its spokespersons said in Mumbai that the DRS will be used in the four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the final - a total of seven matches.