By Peter Della Penna

A few additions from the initial 40-man list, as well as some notable omissions, highlight a short list of 23 men’s national team probables heading down to Florida this weekend to take part in a training camp alongside the Under-19 team.

The list obtained from USACA features 10 players representing the 2009 USACA National Champion New York Region squad, including three who were not in the original list of 40. Akeem Dodson, George Adams and Dennison Thomas have all been invited back to Florida after impressing the selection panel at the National Championship last month.

Among the 23 players, 13 of them have never played for USA’s senior squad.

“Each one of the new guys has just as much chance as anyone else to make the team,” said USA coach Clayton Lambert. “Their performances were so impressive at the last camp that there wasn’t much that separates any of them from anyone else.”

Sushil Nadkarni is not in the list as he is still recovering from an Achilles tendon injury he suffered in the Western Conference Tournament in Minneapolis this past August. It is unclear whether or not he will be fully healed in time to play for the USA in February when they travel to the UAE to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

Barrington Bartley, Timroy Allen and Nasir “Charlie” Javed are also not on the list. Bartley is not participating for work related reasons, but it is unclear if Allen and Javed are not on the list due to performance or unavailability.

The U-19 team will also be training alongside the senior team this weekend in Florida. The 14-man squad that went to Toronto in September will be joined by six other players gunning for the final roster spot on the 15-man team that will go to New Zealand for the ICC U-19 World Cup. While not guaranteeing it, U-19 coach Sew Shivnaraine indicated there is a strong probability the squad that went 6-3 in September to qualify for the World Cup will not be broken up.

“It’s hard to change a winning team,” said Shivnaraine. The choice for the 15th player looks to be a two horse race between South East Region wicketkeeper-batsman Steven Taylor and New York Region pace-bowling all-rounder Kavishwar Bridgepaul. It all depends on whether the selectors opt to increase the depth in batting, which struggled in Toronto, with the big hitting Taylor or instead bring in Bridgepaul to boost the pace bowling department for the seam friendly conditions of New Zealand.

According to Lambert and Shivnaraine, no U-19 players have been included in the list right now for the senior team because they want everyone to focus their efforts 100 percent on the month long tour to New Zealand. However, there is still a possibility that if anyone has a standout tour, they could be added to the senior team afterwards.

The official 15-man U-19 World Cup squad is expected to be announced after the completion of this weekend’s camp. The other five players will form the reserves in case a player needs to be replaced due to injury or other reasons. The senior squad will be cut down to about 18 players for another training camp that is being planned for mid-January before a final squad of 14 is picked.

List of Senior Team Probables

Atlantic Region: Imran Awan, Clain Williams.

Central East Region: Ashhar Mehdi (wk), Akhil Pathan, Khawaja Usman Shuja.

Central West Region: Orlando Baker.

New York Region: George Adams, Lennox Cush, Kevin Darlington, Sudesh Dhaniram, Akeem Dodson (wk), Glen Hall, Rashard Marshall, Steve Massiah, Dennison Thomas, Carl Wright (wk).

North West Region: Mohammad Bilal Khan, Nauman Mustafa (wk), Samarth Shah, Saurabh Verma.

South East Region: Anand Tummala.

South West Region: Aditya Thyagarajan, Ravi Timbawala.

List of U-19 Probables

Atlantic Region: Muhammad Asad Ghous, Yash Shah, Charan Singh, Henry Wardley.

Central East Region: Abhijit Joshi.

Central West Region: Ryan Corns.

New York Region: Kavishwar Bridgepaul, Regis Burton, Gregory Sewdial.

North East Region: Azurdeen Mohammed.

North West Region: Akash Jagannathan (wk), Naseer Jamali, Saad Khan, Saqib Saleem, Saami Siddiqui (wk), Vinay Suri, Shiva Vashishat.

South East Region: Steven Taylor (wk).

South West Region: Salman Ahmad, Hammad Shahid.