The England and Wales Cricket Board today announced a 26-man England Performance Squad for this summer’s international season that includes Notts players Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom.

The EPS, which has been chosen by the England selectors, consists of 12 players currently on 12-month ECB contracts, which includes Sidebottom, plus 14 non-contracted players.

It includes three players who are uncapped at international level; Michael Carberry, Adil Rashid and James Tredwell together with the Kent opening batsman Robert Key, who last played for England on the tour of South Africa in 2004-05.

The National Selector, Geoff Miller, said: “The England Performance Squad is designed to allow Peter Moores to closely monitor the development of international players and better prepare them for the demands of the international game.

“The selectors can name up to 30 players in the EPS, but we have decided to keep four places vacant at present in order to give ourselves greater flexibility and we will reserve the right to add further players to the squad if their performances in domestic cricket merit it.

“We were delighted with the progress made by several of our younger players during the winter both with the full England side and the England Lions but have decided not to award 6-month summer contracts to any individuals at this stage of the season.

“The awarding of contracts is based on our assessment of a player’s performance in international cricket over a period of time and we can, of course, opt to award contracts on a pro-rata basis during the middle of the domestic international season if appropriate.”

England Performance Squad 2008

Tim Ambrose (Warwickshire), James Anderson( Lancashire) *, Ian Bell (Warwickshire) *, Ravi Bopara (Essex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham)*, Alastair Cook (Essex)*, Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire) *, Stephen Harmison (Durham)*, Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire)*, Robert Key (Kent), Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire), Philip Mustard (Durham), Monty Panesar (Northamptonshire)*, Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire)*, Matthew Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Owais Shah (Middlesex), Andrew Strauss (Middlesex)*, Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire)*, Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Chris Tremlett (Hampshire), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire)*, Luke Wright (Sussex)

* denotes those 12 players currently in receipt of 12-month ECB contracts which run from October 1 2007 to September 30 2008.