The Lloyds TSB Scotland winter training squad of 25 players has been named by Cricket Scotland to prepare for next year’s important ICC World Cup Qualifier, which is the qualifying tournament for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The date and venue for the qualifying tournament has not yet been decided by the International Cricket Council although it is hoped this will be known within the next couple of weeks. It is anticipated the event will be held in April 2009.

The squad selected is (players marked * are wintering abroad):

John Blain, Richard Berrington*, Kyle Coetzer, Gordon Drummond, Gordon Goudie, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Omer Hussain, Moneeb Iqbal, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons*, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum, Calum MacLeod, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Qasim Sheikh*, Colin Smith, Simon Smith, Jan Stander, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Sean Weeraratna, Craig Wright.

The only uncapped player in the squad is South Africa-born Jan Stander, the Stoneywood Dyce all-rounder, who has now completed his four-year residency qualification and is eligible to play for his adopted country.

A further 10 players have been named in a development squad, whose progress will be closely monitored throughout the winter training period. They are:

Zeeshan Bashir*, Euan Chalmers, Stuart Coetzer, Scott Dalgleish*, Ryan Flannigan, Charles Legget, Umair Mohammed, Stuart Murray, Matthew Parker, Scott Redhead.

Peter Steindl said: "We aim to keep all our options open, so that we can choose a team to suit the conditions of whatever venue will ultimately be revealed as the location of the World Cup qualifier. The squad is currently enjoying a well-deserved break, but we will reconvene early next month to start our preparations for the Qualifier - and next summer’s busy programme, including the 2009 ICC T20 Championships in England.

Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland’s chief executive, added: "2009 is gearing up to be a huge year for our national squad with two major world events, the Friends Provident Trophy campaign and the match against the world champions Australia next August. With 25 players in the national training squad, there will be plenty of competition for places."